Opening Ceremony

Today we had a full programme. It started off this morning with a visit to the Huo Yuanjia memorial place. This is quite an amazing site right next to the Kung Fu school. I feel lucky that our coach had taken Ben and me there yesterday while the others were training, as it was a beautiful and peaceful place. This morning we were part of a huge group and it wasn’t very peaceful at all.
Anyway, they had spruced the place up since yesterday and there were flowers everywhere and being part of a Buddhist ceremony we were all given a golden scarf before we entered the site and a single flower each. As we approached the tomb via a long straight path that was lined with sculptures of people in different Kung Fu poses and teenage boys with their arms held in the traditional Kung Fu greeting, we could see a huge ‘cauldron’ with three enormous incense sticks burning in it. Behind that was a table set up with various offerings of grains and fruits. We were then invited to lay the flowers down on the edge of the circular tomb in which Huo Yunajin is buried.
Some members of the big group from various countries were obviously buddhist themselves and they bowed three times before offering their flowers.
There were lots of cameras, TV crews and interviewes. Again there were a number of requests of the local helpers to have photos taken with Nick, Ben and Tessa.
All countries were in their team jackets.
After that we went just a few hundred metres down the road to visit the museum of Huo Yuanjia. This building is circular and I have been looking at it for all of this last week, as it can be seen from the training hall that we have been spending a lot of time in. The sun sets just behind it and I have always really liked the building so enjoyed going into it today and seeing the inside.
By the way, if any of you are interested in the story of this guy Huo Yuanjin there is a dramatised version of it on movie. It’s called ‘Fearless’ and I think it has Jet Li in it. In our DVD shop it is in the martial arts section. It tells the story of his life with some accuracy from what I understand. Anyway, he is from this town we are in and he is very famous here. In fact his grandson was at all the events today.
We drove back to the hotel for lunch and then were taken to one of the universities here, the Polytechnic Uni. It has a very big sports stadium and it is were the competition will be held, too. The afternoon was spent with the athletes practising on the carpet there to get a feel for it all. It was also a time to suss out the competition all the while Ben, Derek (the other Dad) and I were sitting around taking it all in. I developed a headache, prbably from lack of activity and fresh air. Took some Panadol and went for a walk which made me feel better.
We all had dinner at the gigantic dining hall of the uni, which was decent enough food and then we went back to see the opening ceremony. Ben managed to film the whole thing on the iPad and one of these days you will all be shown it or I might be able to post some of it on this blog.
The first bit was the athletes walking in sorted by countries, following a local girl with their county’s Chin Woo emblem, then we had the raising of the Chinese and Chin Woo flags and then too many too long speeches in Chinese. However the wait was worth it as we then saw the performance of the team from the Kung Fu school which we have been watching in their practise sessions. In their performance uniforms they looked even better.
The whole thing finished at 20:45 and we got back to the hotel at 21:30 which is super late for the children and tomorrow morning we have a wake up call at 6:00am, breakfast and leaving the hotel at 7:20 to go back to the competition venue. They will be exhausted and it really isn’t the best start for a competition, but what can we do. It is what it is.
That’s it from me, it’s 22:18 and I also will have a wake up call at 6:00, so am better off to bed.
Bye for now
Tanja