Chinese School!

A few days I signed myself up for a beginner's course of Manderin Chinese at the Chinese School in The Hague. Who could have thought that so little people dare to start a Chinese Course, we got an email informing us that there were not enough applicants for the course. But it is no disaster the same course is given in Amsterdam, so it just means getting up early on Saturday. I can't wait to be able to scribble down a few characters and communicate with my friends in their own language only if it is just a few sentences to start with.





I felt so bad last time that I could not talk more. I sent Xu Laoshi a card from Finland and I tried to copy the characters to write down his address and finally success! The card arrived! It will be even nicer to send a small letter. With a lot of study and patience it must be possible! And I use to think French was a tricky language… Almost everybody who has gone to Beijing has the China bug and wants to go back. You have to go there to experience it. I even watch half the Olympic marathon in the middle of the night just because they ran through the TianTan Park almost following the same route as the bus we took almost every morning. There it all was, the Temple, the big pathway were the emperors used to walk upon, the big beautiful gate with its majestic big red doors. Then they ran out of the park almost passed the little shop were we used to buy great Beijing fresh probiotic yogurt from a very friendly lady, there the Hong Ying photo shop, the busstop, it is hard to believe that only 2,5 months ago I was walking there virtually every day and it was and felt like home. Learning the language makes me feel closer to my friends there and the idea of actually being able to have a simple conversation is very motivating!

Maybe i will be able to read what is carved into the bamboo!
It looks beautiful but if anybody knows what it says please let me know it could be anything.

Training in the Park

Training in the Park
21-05-2008
Location: Beijing
Written by Koen van Westbroek, translated by Ester van Dam
All pictures except last 2 by koen van Westbroek

ofcourse we do a lot more the shopping and sightseeing. We came to China to train with Xu Laoshi in TianTan park.
The day usually starts with greeting our teacher and the other students, then it is time for stretching, usually followed by Qi Gong. Xu Laoshi often checks our hands and/or legs after Qi Gong to see if they are nicely red and warm. Then he will decide what we are going to do that day.

The things we train are:


• The eight postures


This excist of walking in circles around a tree holding our hands in different postures. There are 8 postures and per posture you have to walk both left and right way around the tree. This is mostly to build up strength, relaxation and body structure.

• The eight palms
With this execise we walk again around a tree, only less circles in only one posture. The focus is on changing directions, the changes exist out of several technique that exist of punches, kicks,pushes etc.followed in a sequence

• Chen Style TaiChi 24 Form
Unfortunately we do this not often enough. It is a shortened form from the Chen Style TaiChi system. This system characteristics are its fluent movements and the use of Fa li= explosive force in the forms.
• A Bagua Form (Sipingquan)
This is a straightlined Bagua form, without any of the characteristic circle walking. We did not have enough time to learn the whole form so I (Koen) have only been able to learn a small part. Hopefully Ester will learn more, so when she returns can show me the rest. I definitely want to keep practicing this for the next time.

• Push hands (Tui Shou)

We practice a lot of push hands. We have been shown many techniques but also engage in free push hands with the students of Xu Laoshi. The students I had to push against are becoming bigger and better all the time. Xu Laoshi wants us to push according to the Dutch competition rules. Chinese style push hands allows almost anything you can throw, move, grab and apply qinna (joint locks).


We can see that the Chinese students find all these rules pretty strange and now and then couldn’t help it to use a small joint lock. I find Chinese style push hands much more interesting so on Sunday I started pushing back according to the Chinese rules. My opponents were very enthusiastic and it became a totally different game. I flew through the air several times and landed on the floor.



That it can be a bit rough was shown by my arm that evening. It was portraying all possible shades of blue.
On the photo you can see what can happen when you do an afternoon of Chinese style push hands..

Too bad it was the last training day for Natasja, Maarten and me. There is a saying goodbye dinner planned at Xu Laoshi’s house on the last evening. Ester has the luck that she stays two more weeks

The Summerpalace

The Summerpalace
written by Koen van Westbroek
translated by Ester van Dam
All pictures taken by Koen van Westbroek except for the cat picture
date: 08-05-2008
location:Beijing



on the 5th of may Xu laoshi and Victoria (one of his Chinese students) took us to the Summerpalace. Xu Laoshi came to pick us up in the morning and then we walked to a parking place where Victoria was already waiting for us with a very luxurious car. We squeezed ourselves in the back and managed to get the door closed with all 4 of us in the back seat, it was cozy to say the least.
The Summerpalace is a beautiful place and there is so much to see that you can go there many times.





I think Xu Laoshi wanted to show us as much as possible because we went through the palace very fast. Maarten and Natasja had to catch up now and then as they kept finding new things to photograph or film.




Victoria had a very large backpack and some sort of portable cool box with a battery containing a very large elaborate but above all delicious lunch. In the afternoon we sat down for a great picknick. We are not sure if it was because of the lunch or dinner of the night before but that afternoon Koen, Natasja and Xu Laoshi had an upset stomach.
We stayed at the Summerpalace until quite late. It was even more beautiful when it was so quiet and empty.




The next day Koen and Ester went to the park alone as Maarten and Natasja weren’t feeling too well. That day it was very quiet anyway. We did a lot of Fa Li exercises and (pushhands) Tui Shou applications. Time just fly that day.
The next day we were all there again and in the evening Xu Laoshi’s wife also came to dinner. We had the most wonderful Peking duck and some other dishes in a fancy looking restaurant. The bits and pieces of the eaten duck that weren’t served at with the pancakes was fried (very yummie) and served with a spicy herb and salt dip. Half way the dinner Xu Laoshi’s daughter joined us. It was clear that she wasn’t quite sure what to do with all these strange foreign people. After being a bit shy to start with (who wouldn’t be) she started to talk more later that evening
After the delicious dinner Xu Laoshi showed us around in the local supermarket, and told us which things were good to buy. Ester and Koen bought some sort of powder that only needed added water to transform into so very nice small evening snack. That is what we could make of the explanation of Xu Laoshi but there is only one way to be sure and that is to try! We bought some bags and thought it would be a good pre-breakfast snack.. It turned out to be some sort of sweet sesame paste with raisons and other dried fruit, we loved it and it certainly gave you extra energy!


Today we stopped early with the training and were taken to some shops were they sold wapons and Kung Fu and TaiChi clothing. Maarten bought a beautiful broadsword in a holder of very light nice wood, some fans and a TaiChi suit. Ester bought 3 fans, 2 bamboo ones and one made of metal. Ester and Koen also bought a Qi Gong belt, next time we hope to get some instruction on how to wear it.
This evening we went for a quick look in the hutong shopping street next to our hostel, when we suddenly saw lot’s of police motorbikes arriving with screaming sirens. At once all shopkeepers started moving all their things that were stalled on the street indoors. A lot of local people gathered to see what all the fuss was about. Because we weren’t quite sure what was going on we decided that it was probably better to leave. On the way back we saw many police officers handing out fines to the shopkeepers who hadn’t managed to get their things inside. So it turned out oke, nothing drastic happened.
Tomorrow Xu Laoshi will take us to Beihai park were we will go and do some eh.. water cycling. But more about that the next time.

first translation of the China trip blog in English

This is a translation from a previousely written travelblog in Dutch because of several requests i am now translating it all to English. This is the first translation. the trip to Beijing was from 28th of april until the 8th of june this year.



Travelstories: We arrived!
Date: 29-04-2008
Location: Beijing
written by Koen van Westbroek
Translated from Dutch to English by Ester van Dam
Yesterday we arrived in China. The journey went very smooth except for the last bit with the taxi: the driver apparently thought that dropping us off in front of the Youth Hostel was too much hassle. He was pointing at the one-way traffic sign and left us at the corner of the street. That was a long and heavy 500m with the luggage and after a night of airplanesitting.

From the outside the Hostel had no resemblance what so ever with the pictures we had seen on the internet before booking… that has to do with the fact that most of Beijing has transformed into a building site. Only a few more months of vigorous building activities before the Olympics begin…
The façade of the hostel was invisible or gone well at least now we recognize the Hostel by it’s blue metal plates that is kinda easy.
The room we have is rather small, 80% is taken by the bunk beds and when more than 2 people try to take something out of their suitcase, they have to do it one at the time. Apart from that it is a very quiet place, in the centre of town; it has lots of hallways and staircases which give a very authentic feel to it.


Today (29th April) we met Xu Laoshi. For Koen and Ester it was a happy reunion but for Natasja and Maarten it was the first time to meet him. Ester had phoned him yesterday to tell him that we had arrived. But when she came back, she wasn’t sure if anyone had understood anything of the conversation. Today we found out that they had. Xu Laoshi had come to the Hostel to pick us up at 09:00 am. So when we went to TianTan park with the bus for the very first time at least we had someone with us who knew exactly where to go! The city itself is so big that it would have probably taken us much longer to get there. Ofcourse Xu Laoshi knew which bus to take and where to get off.
Today we trained for about 5 hours in the Temple of Heaven park. It is a beautiful place to train and the weather was perfect, about 25c, sunshine (no smog!). Tomorrow we will try to get there by ourselves. We promised him to be there at 10am.
Xu Laoshi is a very fun and sweet person and an exceptional good teacher; sometimes it is difficult to understand everything because of the language: His English is just as good as our Chinese…But with sign language and hand gestures and being physically molded into the right shape, we are getting there.
To close off the day we had dinner with Xu Laoshi in a restaurant close to our hostel. The food is delicious here!