In tianjin

Tianjin Kung Fu School
ON Sunday afternoon we made our way from Beijing to Tianjin. We were taken to Tianjin by bus and we had the same driver, Mr. Wu, who took us through Beijing.
This time we had a different guide, her job was to deliver us to Tianjin and help us check in.
We thought we were going to the hotel in Tianjin but their instructions were different and unbeknown to us they were meant to take us to the Kung Fu School.
A big main road leads from Beijing to Tianjin and after a couple of hours on that road, the driver went off this onto a much, much smaller country road. We couldn’t figure out why he was doing that and it got very bumpy in the back. We thought perhaps he had to do something on the way, pick something up perhaps, and the roads just became narrower and narrower.
Finally I asked Risa, the new guide, why we are going a different way to Tianjin then to when we were picked up from Tianjin to drive to Beijing a week earlier.
She said they are taking us to the Kung Fu School and that they were following the GPS system, which finally explained why we were going cross country as GPS systems worldwide seem designed to lead people to weird and wonderful places.
Well, after driving past very rural Chinese scenes we arrived at the school. I will post a picture once I have the picture posting back under control, and the school looks truely like something out of a Bruce Lee movie.
The gates opened and we all disembarked in front of the main building. Oh, did mention that Nick was playing with Derek’s iPhone during the bumpy bus ride? Well, as soon as the bus came to a stand still, he threw up on the floor inside the bus! I couldn’t believe my luck and was very apologetic to Mr. Wu, however he said not to worry (at least that’s what I think he said) and he proceeded to organise a bucket with hot water and wash out the bus…right there by the front door of the main building! I think he felt bad about the x-country ride and thought he was to blame for Nick being sick.
Anyway, soon after that little debacle Helen, our NZ travel companion who had come here four days before us instead of joining us in Beijing, came to find us with three girls from the senior team here, whom she had befriended.
They were all very nice and helpful to us and Helen showed us the room she has stayed in for the time that she was here at the school. Now that we had arrived as well, the school had us transferred to a local hotel, which is where we are staying now. It is a basic hotel, but it does the job. We are only there at night anyway.
We have breakfast around 7:00am, then the little bus picks us up and takes us to the school and we join the training at 9:00am. This school is a martial art school. It’s main focus is Kung Fu, but they teach all other manners of martial arts, too. This is in accordance with the founder from 100 years ago who had envisaged a joint school of many different styles, rather than various styles of martial art or kung Fu fighting each other, as was the case then.
This is a boarding school and around 1600 students attend. Most children go home for the weekend and return on Sunday afternoons. Training is three times a day. FIrst at 5:30am until 7:30, then breakfast and a break until 9:00am. That’s the second training session until 11:30, then lunch. Then a break until 15:00 when they have the last training of the day until 17:30 when it’s their dinner time.
THe younger children receive academic tuition somewhere between these times, and in fact I don’t know if the training schedule is quite that rigorous for them, but for the group that we are training with, it is. They are mainly teenagers, perhaps from 12 years old, and they don’t seem to be getting this much schooling anymore.
The training, well that is something else. These kids have bodies of steel! Very hard steel! They do the most amazing things with their bodies, acrobatics, flips from standing positions, falls, jumps and leaps. They know dozens and dozens of Kung Fu forms off by heart and all know to use most or all of the weapons on offer. Spears, knives, swords (single, double, broad swords), staffs and a few other bits and pieces. Their training is very hard, with the coaches watching and yelling at them from the side. They are supremely disciplined and the cameradery between them is tangible. They have all known each other for a long time, eaten together, lived together and trained together. A lot of them will come back to this school after completing their studies and be coaches here together, too.
The outside area is large and always in use for the younger classes who seem to be getting most of their basic training out there. Sometimes with tinned music, most of the time to shouts from a coach. The very young kids are also very good.
So our guys are training along side this amazing senior team here in their large training hall. We try and stay way to the right and out of their way and continue to be stunned by what their bodies can do. One of the teenage boys has been assigned to watch and correct our guys in their training. He is injured and has a soar back, so I think this has given him an official reason not to train, I am not so sure he would have otherwise be given time off…
He has been very helpful and our group has picked up lots of little tips from him. We are definitely feeling inspired by what we see during training!
We receive our lunch and dinner here at the school, together with the 1600 children. It is a massive lunch room, we all queue and get a plate with rice, three different vegetables and sometimes a little meat. It is very nutritious and most definitely not fattening!! The kids all woof down their food as if there is no tomorrow.
Needless to say through all this, we receive a lot of attention, looks, stares even and giggles from the little children. The brave ones wave at us and some say ‘hello’ in English, which is probably the only word they can say, just like my only word is Nihaoo back which has them in fits of laughter in return.
I am currently siting out in the sun in the school court yard during rest time, most people are lying in their beds recovering from the five hours training they have already done today, and two little girls, perhaps 8 years old are hanging about trying to make up their mind if they are brave enough to come up and say hello. THey just walked past me and when I said Nihaoo and they got the giggles and waved ‘bye bye’ as they ran off. So they know two words in English!
Back to training now. I am only watching obviously, missing my own workout for which there has been neither time nor space so far. In Beijing it didn’t matter as we were walking all day, but after three days of not doing much physically I am beginning to miss the gym and my morning walks in the park.
Tanja