I never suspected on January 1st 2020, as I returned from my latest trip to Yangshuo studying tai chi, that I wouldn’t step foot in China until December 2023.
In fact due to Covid I had to cancel a 5-week trip that I had planned for summer of the year of the outbreak. I was planning almost a month of training with my instructor, Master Ping, as well as meeting my partner in Beijing for a spot of tourism.
It was disappointing with the emergence of Covid and onset of lockdown that it seemed my progress in my tai chi and Mandarin studies may be negatively affected, yet where there’s a will there’s a way and I persisted and, as did the rest of the world, switched my studies online.
In an at the time unseen twist of fate, I would spend many, many more hours learning from Master Ping using Zoom in my garden on pretty much a twice weekly basis, than I would have done had I stuck to my twice yearly visits to Yangshuo.
In 2021 Master Ping left Yangshuo and returned to his hometown of Jieyang in Guangdong province. Roughly meaning that upon my arrival in December 2023, after my long wait to return to China, I would head four hours east of Hong Kong, rather than four hours north.
I booked my plane ticket not long after the borders were again opened, prices were still a bit pricey so I opted for a cheaper ticket with a long layover in Qatar. I could have done without the 8 hours in Doha (although the coffee and food is quite good!) but was grateful (eventually) for BA seemingly double booking my seat…. and giving me a free upgrade to a premium seat!
What was striking on the second leg of my journey was the plane being way less than half full. I spared a brief thought for a potentially flagging tourism industry but that was rapidly superseded by my delight of a second upgrade in two flights down to the amount of free seats in premium economy (well, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!).
So a mixed journey from London to Hong Kong of two comfortable flights on either side of a tedious layover, but 24 hours later here I was…. Happily arriving in Hong Kong!
My time in Hong Kong was brief, yet I had time in the morning to head to Kowloon park for some tai chi practice alongside some locals. I found a part of the park called ‘Kung Fu Corner’, so it seemed as good a place as any to stretch and help my body recover from hours of flying.
Next stop, after a hearty breakfast of a steaming bowl of noodles, was the train station and going through border security into China.
So here was my grand re-entry to China, three years after my last visit, and my first time in Shenzhen, where I would be staying for a couple of days before heading to Jieyang.
Mostly a modern business hub, I wasn’t expecting too much from Shenzhen, yet from my taxi window from the station to my hotel, it seemed pleasant enough. I’d swapped 8 degrees and rain in England for 28 and sun in China, so there was that! Plus it seemed like a modern, clean city with plenty of green spaces.
Checking into my hotel and jet lag seemed to be kicking in, so I relaxed for a few hours before heading out and enjoying some roast pork and rice, followed by a quick return to my hotel room.
Here my China trip didn’t exactly get off to the start I had expected as the next day and a half I spent in bed in my Shenzhen hotel suffering from what I can only think was my first ever migraine headache, compounded with jet lag and a very out of synch sleep pattern.
So, with my first experience of Shenzhen spent suffering in a darkened hotel room for 36 hours, I was happy to be leaving for Jieyang and the start of my tai chi training with Master Ping….. Which I will cover in part 2 of the blog, coming soon…
