I’ve been travelling through Chinafor over a week now and the adventures continue. With little time to blog and slow, spotty internet connections I’ve only had time to fulfill the duty to keep the Discovery Student Adventures blog, but wanted to give a brief summary of my journey.
After spending about 4 touring Beijing we’ve left thef city for a more rural setting. We camped overnight in the village of Gubekoi where we woke up at 5am to hike the Great Wall. This is the most fantastic hike I’ve done (the Materhorn is close). We went through parts that required special permits, but we still had to get off the wall in the military zone and hiked through thick brush. The views were amazing as we hiked in the mist of the mountains. The up & down terrain kept our pace fast. Cliche as it sounds, it was an amazing experience.
We arrived yesterday in Shaolin, the birthplace of kung fu. Yesterday we went to the Shaolin temple where the students are taught by Buddist monks. The head monk spoke to us about the history of how both Buddism and kung fu was brought to China from India. We can see a monument way up on a hill where an Indian named Bodhidharma came and spent 9 years living in a cave, meditating. Sounds like creative torture to me. We have morning prayer and breakfast with him tomorrow, 4am.
We spent today at a newer kung fu school less than a mile from the temple. I’d seen video footage of these schools on a screen before but you have no idea just how ridiculous it is until you’re there with 6,000 boys (and about 5 girls) running around in red shirts and black track pants, shouting and doing drills in unison.
We spent the morning getting instructed by a group of scary-looking 19yr-olds you would not want to be on the other end of a bar fight. We learned a drill routine that takes about 20 seconds to run through if you’re fast. It took us 2 hours and enough sweat to fill up a swimming p0ol to learn. It was tough like yoga but they would stop and perfect our technique by moving our hands or feet or knees, holding a lunge the whole time.
Hot and humid understate the weather. I estimate that I’ve drunk about 50-60 water bottles (0.5L) in one week. Luckily they’ve got the perfect refreshment at every meal: tea and hot soup. I am going to come back and make my first million in this country with icemakers. Nothing is cold – not even the refrigerators.
The kids have been phenomenal on this trip. Kids from Wisconsin & New Jersey along with my CA kids have bonded like I’ve never seen before. They have formed one mass, dissolving the state lines and miles that separate them back home. Here, they’re all Westerners. I would travel with this group of kids again. We’ve fully enjoyed our journey and will be leaving China on Saturday.
Brett, that sounds like an amazing trip so far. That’s great you were able to do this with your students. I wish I could have done something like that in HS!