Drinking Tea, Making Friends… China Travelogue Part 2

I won’t bore you with a run down of the day-by-day account of my week’s stay in Jieyang… you’ll get the picture of a tea drinking, chatting, eating, and training daily routine soon enough! 

One of my favourite things to do when in China is venture into a local park in the early morning and find a nice spot to practice qigong and tai chi alongside the locals. When I have a choice I always make sure my accommodation is suitably located near a park, fortunately my Jieyang hotel was a 5-minute walk from a large square, with some nice areas for training.

During my first day recce to scout out the area for a good spot, I came across the usual (for China) groups of people practicing tai chi together, dancing in synchronised groups, the occasional runner, and plenty of people having a morning stroll. 

It’s always slightly  intimidating to start your tai chi practice in the land of tai chi, surrounded by local Chinese people, and I could see a few people casting glances at me as I started my warm up on the first morning. I was also checking out my fellow tai chi enthusiasts and I was flanked by two groups of ladies practicing, as well as a man and woman who were clearly at a very high level! When I started my first Chen form, all groups literally stopped and stared at me for several minutes, and two ladies even grabbed their mobile phones and started recording me – from quite close range!

Following days saw similar curious passers-by having a good look and checking out the westerner doing tai chi in their town square but all were friendly and quick to say hello and raise a smile, a few even stopped for a chat, so it was some good Mandarin practice for me as well.

My daily morning practice was followed by a hearty breakfast, the hotel provided a great buffet and I was able to fill up with some very nice local cuisine. 

After training and refuelling, my mornings were dedicated to Mandarin practice. I was fortunate to have been put in touch with one of Master Ping’s friends, and spent my mornings at her house chatting and drinking tea, often with her husband and kids there also.

Jieyang itself is in eastern Guangdong. Guangdong province is in southern China, ironically the neighbouring province to Fujian, where White Crane tai chi and kung fu originate. 

Jieyang, as well as two neighbouring small (for China) cities, Chaozhou and Shantou make up a minority cultural-linguistic region known as Chaoshan, with a distinctive cuisine, language, opera, music, and – as I got to sample in great quantities – tea.

Chaoshan is an area well known for high quality tea, and the Chinese tea ceremony, known as ‘gongfu tea’ (making tea with skill). The aim of gongfu tea is to make tea that tastes good and is good for the soul. The local Chaoshan people I met and friends I made are very proud of their tea heritage, and for good reason, it’s incredibly tasty and of a high quality. I’m lucky enough to have been given a lot to bring back home and will be enjoying it for quite some time!

I’ve had a handful of Chinese language teachers in the 4-5 years that I have been learning Mandarin. Studying with Wen Du, my teacher in Jieyang, was a great experience for me as it wasn’t really like having lessons, we spent all of our time chatting, sharing knowledge of our cultures and countries. Her husband was usually there too, and they also took me out to nice local areas for walks in the countryside, as well as out of the way places for lunch. 

Most days though, I had lunch with Master Ping before our afternoons together started – and we commenced the main reason I had travelled 6000 miles – push hands training… which I will write about in part 3!