Fellow Virtual Travelers,
It's been a busy two days with trains, tours and unreliable internet access! We have wi-fi in our room at the base of Wudangshan, but the signal is intermittent enough that we've not been able to make all the email communications that we need to!
We have spent the last two nights in Shiyan City at the base of the mountain - our Wudang monk friend (English name = Victor) has been engaged here in town with a very important convention for his 15th generation of martial artists teachers and schools. He is one of 5 - 6 people who have schools on the mountain, so is a pillar for his Master's lineage of Wudang Tai Chi.
Today we head up Wudangshan for the majority of our stay. Our bodies woke us early again, so spent some time drafting more detailed plans for our history research mission. We are looking to glean the legends, folklore and mystery of this mountain's 5,000 years of Wudang martial arts history. We will be staying at Yang's Guesthouse whose address is Wuyaling Parking Lot. !?!?!? Should be interesting! This house has three rooms and Victor has arranged for us to have the entire building to ourselves. It is centrally located to Victor's school, his residence and two of the mountain's bus stops. WE HOPE!! This will enable us to more readily get around the mountain on our own, as Victor has other obligations and will not be able to spend every minute with us (we understood this before we left the U.S.).
On Tuesday April 22nd, we woke up early (not biologically synced to China time yet), looking forward to a nice hot shower after two days of airplane and train travel! Only there was no hot water. Dennis shivered through it, Anita skipped a shower this time around! Apparently they turn off the hot water heaters at night and don't turn them on again until 7 am. By the way, the bathroom IS the shower stall - using the shower gets the whole room wet!
We packed up to bring luggage to the lobby for safe keeping while we tour around town, only to find out we're staying in town another night and if our rooms are okay, we can leave the luggage in our rooms! So, lug the 50 pound suitcases back up to the third floor! No elevator. There is a void in the occidental-oriental communication system. This is a small example of that reality. We know the chasm exists, but we keep trying to fill that gap of different thinking styles as best we can -- a challenge.
We have reflected on our first trip to Wudangshan with our Kung Fu school in 1996. Back then, things were even more austere and rugged! We had hot water, but it was brown in color. We had a tub with a curtain rod, but no shower curtain. Then the drain in the tub was clogged, so someone had bashed a 6-inch hole in the corner of the tub, so that the brown water could drain across the bathroom floor from the tub to another drain in the floor under the sink!
At that time, it was customary for hotel staff to come and go into rooms at will, without even knocking. If you were caught in the shower or partially unclothed, they reported you to hotel management for being unpresentable when they entered. That has changed - we've not had one surprise visit from hotel staff yet! Most try to be very helpful, even though no English is spoken.
We also haven't seen a rat climbing the curtains in the dining hall, as we did during the 1996 tour! So life at the base of Wudangshan is good this year!
We are truly on our own for the most part - relying heavily on the electronic translator that we brought along. Managed to order a delicious breakfast of noodles, cabbage, garlic and other unrecognizable vegetables at a local restaurant down the road!
Victor (our friend and local guide) had hired a van and driver to take us around to sights we'd requested: the Wudang Cultural Museum which didn't open until 3 pm; Yu Xu palace ruins that are in the process of being rebuilt; a visit to a Tea House to treat our driver; a visit to the the original Wudang gate and finally a visit to the the reconstruction site of an old temple that burned down in 2003!
The Yu Xu palace ruins hold a place in our hearts as this is where our martial arts instructor Sharon, met an old Nun who headed up the school at this location. While this elder has passed away (2002 early 2003), we had another fun experience at Yu Xu on this trip! While taking a rest at the rear of the complex, an elderly Taoist nun approached us, holding out a plate of pumpkin-type flakey pastry ball. While the taste was somewhat unknown to our palettes, they were delicious and energizing!
The visit to the original ancient Wudang gate was breathtaking! This gate was the entrance to the mountain area and while we had seen it on our 2003 trip to Wudang, our co-traveler, Karl had never seen it before, though he has visited Wudang more that we have.
Here are some links to check out:
http://www.wudanggongfu.com/kungfu/school.htm
http://www.wudangchina.com/index.htm
Oh and the truck with the megaphones just drove by again, talking loudly about something that we couldn't understand!
We were on our own again tonight for dinner in the hotel. It took 30 minutes to get something ordered for the three of us to share, even with our electronic translator! A young lady with some English happened in (was clearly friends with some of the dining room staff), so with her iPhone and an English App, she helped us get past their initial understanding that we wanted one whole chicken for each of us, and nothing else. FINALLY we conveyed our order of fried tofu and rice to share between the 3 of us! Exasperating! But, there were many laughs and we hope that they enjoyed the communication challenge as much as we did! The meal was delicious!
So we've had some busy and very successful days! Remember I.I.W.I.I. - IT IS WHAT IT IS!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
P.S. Our co-traveler, Karl, keeps getting lost, but we've found him every time so far. Oh, and Anita is not blending in very well in rural China… Go figure!