China 2019 - Day 13, Tuesday, 30th July Great training, hot weather, and awesome food were in abundance as usual - but today's first for me was a new treatment that I had not had before, Gua Sha. It is basically scraping the skin with a heated cup, or other implement. It draws out toxins, … Continue reading Day 13 – Solid Foundations
Tag: china summer 2019
China 2019 - Day 12, Monday, 29th July Back into the weekday routine and it seems to go something like this: wake up, revise Mandarin, training, lunch, Mandarin lesson, have a coffee, training, dinner, bike ride (taking photos), training, writing/reading, sleep... If there's a Groundhog Day scenario that I could quite happily go along with, … Continue reading Day 12 – Martial Discipline
China 2019 - Day 11, Sunday 28th July So today is Sunday and keeping in with Western traditions I decided to dedicate my day to rest and deep contemplation. Yeah, right. Today was dedicated to effortlessly defeating my enemies and slicing them up with a big sword. Or something like that... I sleep so badly … Continue reading Day 11 – Infinite Journey
China 2019 - Day 10, Saturday, 27th July Saturday today and I decided to head out and explore Yangshuo and the surrounding area on foot. A 40 minute walk and I was in the centre of Yangshuo from Jima Village. I am half way through reading Alain De Botton's book about travel. It's a very … Continue reading Day 10 – Reality of Travel
China 2019 - Day 9, Friday, 26th July So there comes a time in learning anything where you just get that feeling where you don't feel like you're quite getting it...and frustration sets in. This quite often leads to a student leaving class and never coming back, which from an instructor's perspective is never a … Continue reading Day 9 – Dealing with Frustration
China 2019 - Day 8, Thursday, 25th July So I have to confess that today I woke up feeling a little weary (yes, it does happen!) and that in combination with a very hot morning first thing, meant a rather slow and sluggish feeling when I started training. Personally I'm not a breakfast person, so … Continue reading Day 8 – Stand like a Tree
China 2019 - Day 7, Wednesday, 24th July More hard training today and after a week I can really feel the basics coming along - although, as with all things, there's always a long way to go... and there probably always will be, as there's forever another level you can aspire to and try to … Continue reading Day 7 – Balance
China 2019 - Day 6, Tuesday, 23rd July So today as well as training and learning Mandarin, I have had my first cupping treatment on this China trip. I first had cupping in 2007, the first time I came to China and visited Beijing. I could only describe it as a feeling of my entire … Continue reading Day 6 – Cupping
China 2019 - Day 5, Monday, 22nd July Well, the red tea from last night was very nice but that and the humidity and heat meant that I was up half the night over caffeinated and too hot! So my day got off to quite a slow start with a gentle pre-class stretch and mobility … Continue reading Day 5 – Training