Paul Strutt's China Journey

Sometimes when we look at a beautiful painting there is usually something which catches the eye, then we either step back or step in to take a closer look to try to either understand the concept or the point the artist is trying to convey or we walk away uneffected by it at all. If we do take a closer look we it is often the whole painting that creates, controls and concentrates the mind.

You may say “What has this to do with China?’’ My first reason in travalling to China was my interest in the matrial arts and I’ll be completely honest the culture of this country was of interest also but not to the degree as that of the martial arts, I was soon to realize that it is just like a painting, it caught my eye by way of the martial arts I stepped in to take a closer look and became engrossed by the whole country.

At risk of sounding like I am writing this article for
the Chinese Tourist Bureau I feel if I only mention
the martial art aspect it is half the story. So bare with me and if I get too boring just let me know the next time you see me and I promise I won’t even mention the word “China”.

Tai-Chi instructor Senior Master Eng Chor Kor travels to China at least once a year, he usually takes a few of his students with him. I was fortunate to be asked to travel with him this year. Eng Chor Kor has been organizing trips to China and Tibet since the late 1980’s, consequently over this period he has developed a travel schedule that is both professional and comprehensive in it’s presentation. Staying at the best hotels, more food than you can eat, visiting out of the way places and training that you dream of.

Our first port of call was Beijing after a conecting flight from Shanghai. In all the flight from Melbourne to Beijing is a total of 14 hours. Everyone was ready to hit sack when we arrived at hotel at 11.00p.m. as we had an early start the next morning ….Tai – Chi ...In The Park ... IN BEIJING… Laying in bed that night I felt like a 10 year old child on Christmas eve. 5.30a.m our first sight of the city in daylight. With a hazy, misty, pinkish blue but clear sky and no wind, the air was crisp but heavy with dust.

Beijing as with most of China is currently under major construction. Couple this with a seven year drought and the result is very dusty. The park that we were heading to involved a short sub way trip with the station being just down the road from the hotel. Beijing has a population of about 15million but taking this into consideration it was quite easy to move around the city at this time of the morning. The train ride was interesting, not one word of printed English was to be seen. A word of warning for those intending to travel to China - go with someone who is fluent with the language. This may sound arrogant but the Chinese government are slowly beginning to realize that by opening up their country to the out side world after being closed for so many years they need to assist us by way of signage and language.

I have travelled to many parts of the world where English is not spoken but I found an increased difficulty here with communication. Manderin is difficult for this ‘Western Devil’ to come to grips with. Back to the train. There are two people assigned to the drivers compartment of the train , one to drive and announce the destination in Chinese and the other to announce the destination in English. The only problem was that we had already stopped at three stations before I realized the announments were in English, muffled by the speaker with a Chinese slant the announcer had her work cut out for her. Railway announcemnts are hard enough to understand even in Australia. If you get lost here good luck. As you can see, few things have changed over the millenia!!

One of the most amazing sights while over here was the Terra-Cotta Warriors. A 14yr old Emporer ordered the building of his tomb. It was to guarded after his death by an estimated 6000 life size terra-cotta soldiers. Completed in detail from the military formation in which they were placed, their weapons, miltary dress, horses, carrages, down to their life lines etched into their hands. Discovered by a farmer digging a well in 1979 the excavation area seems to be extreemly slow and labourous due to a lack of funding. Even though the area excavated so far is quite large, aprox 170,000sqmtrs all under roof, it is 7 kilometers from the actual tomb. Who knows what is yet to be found. Emporers Palaces seem to be scattered throughout China.

While in this area we visited the Winter Palace. Not so much a palace, but seeming to be more a major slice of the country side. The history of this country deals with such tragedy. From Emporesses killing all of their immediate family so as to remove a perceived threat, to the lives of pure hell for those who lived directly under such leaderships. Time and time again it appears through this countries unique history. The Winter Palace was not immune. Emporers would sometimes have thousands of concubines. This particular Emporer fell in love with one, who became known as Lady Yang she was discribed as the most beautiful woman in China. The two spent most of their waking hours together. He was obsessed by her beauty. One of the Military Generals being concerned that the Emporers affection for Lady Yang was detrimental to the every day affairs of ruling the country gave the emporer an ultimatum. It was decided the Emporer had to put his love to death or face the consequences of losing conrol of the counrty. Lady Yang was beheaded at the age of 38.

En Chor has arranged for Peng Ying a Wushu Master to travel and train with us for three days. Peng Ying is the Head instructor at Chendu Institute of Physical Education, Sichuan Provence. Chendu is often refered to as the gate way to Tibet. She has travelled many miles to be with us and being 3 time All Woman National Champion in Tai-Chi and Wushu it would a gross understatment to say she was very skillfull. Peng Ying shared some valuable knowledge with us during her short stay with us. Being taught by a Peng Ying is another experience that I feel privalaged to have had on this trip. Tai Chi and Pa’ kua was the main focus of her early morning classes. For someone like myself whose background is Karate, Tai chi and Pa’ Kua is like a breath of fresh air.

The Henan (Her-Nahn) Province is regarded as the centre of Martial Arts. Apart from die hard martial artists most tourists do not visit this area. It is almost half a day by train to Luoyang (Loy-Yang) a city almost bordering the north west corner of Henan. The White Horse Temple is a short bus trip from Luoyang. In 64 A.D.monks from this area walked to Afganistan.While there they obtained many Buddist scriptures and used white horses to bring them back to Luoyang. After their return the Emperor ordered a Temple to be built complete with a White Horse. Walking through the main entrance was like walking back in time. An atmosphere of complete tranquility enhanced by ancient architecture wetted after a gentle rain. The sound of a temple bell in the distance, safron robed monks reading scripture whilest attending to their shrines. Time means nothing here. There were some interesting people working out in one of the parks in Luoyang. One lady in particular who was practicing Hsing-Yi and Pa’kua. She was using a tree as a wooden dummy. She was hitting the tree with a good deal of force, so much force that the tree would shake each time she made contact. Then after one particular strike a branch broke off which was quite high up, falling to the ground, only to be received with laughs then more striking. The lady was close to 60 yrs of age

The Shaolin Temple is two hours by bus from Deng Feng (Tung Fung), surrounded by a huge mountain range it rests in a small town whose sole purpose for continued existance is Martial Arts. Hundreds of small shops some no wider than the length of a spear, all selling the same goods, swords, poles, fans, knife, statues etc lined the main road leading to the Shaolin Temple. Very commercialised. Even the Shaolin Temple takes advantage of the commercial aspect and why not, the govt do not support the monks in any way, the mantainance of the temple is supplied by the monks using their own funds. People such as myself visit here because it is recognised as one of the birth places of the martial arts that are practiced to this day and are happy to contribute. If you, the reader, is an instructor and think your attendances are high I hope I don’t burst any bubbles when I tell you that one school here has 7,000 students. There is an estimated 20,000 martial art students in this town. While wandering through the town a couple of us saw a group of 40 young boys ages from 7-10yrs of age taking an afternoon martial art class. Their form work was superb, we were watching for about10 minutes when three students must have become distracted by what we thought was our unobtrubsive presence. The instructor stopped the class, called the three offenders to the front, proceded one by one to give them a good dressing down then grabbed one by the tops of his ears, lifted him straight off the ground, gave him a slight shake, put him back down and proceded to do the same to the other poor soles. Even with tears in their eyes they didn’t make any further mistakes. From that moment on I couldn’t help looking for martial artists with pointy ears wandering if they were complete incompetants or from the planet Vulcan…

The temple was built around 400A.D. with a tree in its grounds estimated to be 1,500yrs old. The old monks emit an air of relaxed detatchment. The younger monks have an intensity in their eye that has to be seen to be believed, but they all seem quite friendly, laughing and joking around. One monk asked if I would like to free spar him. I declinded gracefully as I wanted to finish my trip with 100% use of my body. As part of their fund raising the monks put on a display of some of their training practices. Hanging by the neck 4mtrs off the ground, bricks smashed on backs of monks while leaning on a spear placed at the throat, just to name a couple of techniques, you know, everyday type training that we all do! I would have liked to have stayed up there for longer as this area is pretty amazing for any one who has an interest in martial arts. May be next time. Our last training session with Peng Yin before we leave for Shanghai dealt with reveiwing the Pa-Kua she had taught us the previous days. Hopefully we will train together again on our next trip. Shanghai greeted us with heavy rain. Shanghai is approximately 1000kms south-east of Beijing. Shanghai is a city of exreems when it comes to architecture. The very modern, ulmost futuristic structures sometimes blending with the ancient. However, we are heading to a city which is a few hours bus trip to the west of Shanghai called Suzhou (Sue-Zoh) with intensions of returning to Shanghai in a couple of days. Suzhou is known as The Garden City with a history dating back 2,500 years. It really is a beautiful city with some magnificant gardens and canal systems. It is easy to why Marco Polo spent 2 years of his life here as a Government official.

The Nanlin Hotel gardens were our new training grounds. Tao-Yin exercises, Qi-Gong, Pa-Qua and Yang 108 lead by Senior Master En Chor Kor. What a great way to start the days. There is more to En Chor Kor than meets the eye. World history, Chinese history, phylosophy, Martial Arts, qi-gong, Traditional Chinese Medicine were topics of conversation usually leading into the late hours. Time doesn’t see to worry him and is comfortable to be around. He has an easy going, neutralising personality which is well suited to spending long hours traveling with. Suzhou is renowned for it’s artistry and poety. I was fasciated by Yue Ch (You Cheh),one of China’s most famous poets. Yue Ch studied for many years to sit for an entry exam for acceptance into the imperial court. An exam that could only be taken once. Many scolars sought a high ranking position under the Emporer as this guaranteed an affluent lifstyle for the whole family. Leaving his town traveling many hundreds of miles to the Imperial Court only to fail. Feeling very depressed knowing that his entire family were relieing on him, not knowing what to tell his family, not knowing what their future held, knew that he had to return.

After traveling many miles with the feeling of dejection he caught the sound of a temple bell ringing in the distance from his town. Each time the bell rang he felt as though his worries were fading. With each ring he accepted more and more what had happened.Upon reaching home his mind was clear with an inspiration to write poetry. Thousands of scolars passed the exam over the centuries but very few are remembered. Had he passed the emporers exam he may never have written a single verse. This mans failure has served as an inspiration to many people and his poetry is still read 2,500yrs later. Time to leave this increadable place and head for Shanghai.

Wong Pu Park is quite spectacular with an elevated esplande of a coulple of kilometers in length over looking buildings across the bay that look like they could feature in a science fiction film. The park is literally packed with early morning training. En Chor Kor has arranged for us to visit
the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education with Master Qiu Pin-Xeng who is Professor and Head of The Department of Chinese Martial Arts and Kung Fu at the institute,
Mr. Lee Jing Fu assistant Head of the Institute and Mr. Joe Chang ,Qi Gong master. The students here have 4hrs
theory each morning, 2hrs break then 4hrs practical in the afternoons.
The Professor walked us to the practice area where there were plenty of routines underway, Tai-Chi, Long Fist, Southern Fist, various sword, spear and pole forms.
All very sharp and precise with incredible speed. I felt as though I could spend months training here.

Our trip has come to an end. Time to head back home to Australia. Even though our stay was short I feel as a martial artist incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity not only to visit China but to meet and train with the people at the source.

Paul Strutt