The Market

The outdoor market comes to life every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. What is usually a nondescript side-road begins to bristle with activity as local vendors set up shop in the early morning hours. By the time we arrive at nine the crowd has reached something approaching a swarm, mopeds laden with goods are weaving in and out of the crowd on the side walks. 

Just inside the gate we are greeted with freshly cut pork hanging from butcher's hooks suspended by chains. Ahead on the right several farmers are selling the fresh produce and spices they have harvested over the past week. On the left people try to turn a profit selling random wholesale goods roughly arranged into related categories and spread out across their blankets, the market itself is structured in a similar hodgepodge manner. 

Farther down the street the smell of fish fills the air; fish that were alive just moments ago are being scaled and filleted to order right next to me on the curb. Beyond the curb are rows of more permanent shops selling a variety of tea from different provinces in China. These more permanent storefronts are also home to a place we fondly refer to as Techno Cushion due to their penchant for blasting techno music outside of their fabric/cushion store**. 

Along the outskirts of the market people bring various plants and animals to sell resulting in a fun hybrid between pet shop and plant nursery. Cactus lady does the most business due to her low prices and quality cactus soil, equally worthy of attention are the puppies and many fine bonsai trees on display.

Lately, the highlight of the market has been the stone vendors who are in town for two weeks. They come from all over China, many of them making the trek all the way from Xinjiang province to display their works, jade carvings are the size of a refrigerator, intricate landscapes of soapstone. Often times only parts of the stone are carved away to create the effect of a wooded village nestled into the crag of a huge mountain. My favorite piece is carved out of turquoise jade, giving it the feel of an Atlantis-like village. Very cool.

*Most foods at the market are sold by weight, the local unit of measure is the jin which is equivalent to roughly half a kilogram. The question, “Duo shao qian yi jin?” comes in handy at the market and translates as “How much money per jin?”

**This is a popular trend in China. Other local favorites of ours include Techno Chicken and Techno Smoothie.

Wudang Shan

After a three hour train ride through the mountains we came to Wudang, the legendary birthplace of Tai Chi and holdout of Taoist thought in China.

Master Xu Gu 虚谷, met us at the station in a beat-up old van.  At 22 years old, he is one of the youngest masters in Wudang.  Trying to fit 10 of us plus luggage into a seven-passenger van, he remained calm and relaxed. He had no interest in impressing or complementing us - a welcome departure from daily life in Xiang Fan.  He also did not honk his horn or try to pass anyone the entire trip... very un-Chinese. 

We spent our first two days re-learning how to stand, walk, and breathe. We would stand for 15 minutes at a time with our arms out in front of us, span a distance of 10 yards in as many minutes, and then stand some more. The Chinese call this Nei Gong 内功 and practice it to develop internal energy by improving concentration, circulation, and proprioception. The third day we hiked to the top of Wudang Shan on sore legs*. The fourth and fifth days we were finally deemed ready to begin work on the first form of Wu-style Tai Ji Quan太极拳. 

As sore as we were, our training program was easy in comparison to how the students train**. They begin at age four and train for eight hours a day, six days a week. Morning conditioning begins at 5:30am and involves running through the mountains for two hours. After conditioning there is time for breakfast followed by a three hour morning training session. Next is lunch is followed by a two hour siesta***. The afternoon training session is another three hours followed by dinner.

Evenings we enjoyed spending our time with the kids playing games or making origami. Our first night the kids put on a world class demonstration of their training complete with flips, traditional tai ji forms, and one of the older students jumping over us standing up. 

*It took us just over 3 hours to get to the top moving at a decent pace. Xu Gu and Qing Feng Zi, the head master, are capable of reaching the top in just forty minutes.  Intense!

*Most of the students at this humble academy will go on to become body guards for the most high-profile people in Chinese society.  The head master was at one time the main body guard for Hu Jintao. 

***The two hour siesta is somewhat ubiquitous in Hubei. On campus there are no classes from noon to two and all of the offices close down. Most businesses and banks follow a similar schedule.

Rules of the Road

Hello everyone, I just got back from a trip to Wudang Shan a couple of days ago. Things have been pretty busy here with school. I plan to write about my trip to Wudang in detail sometime next week. In the meantime, I have made a list of rules for driving in China that I would like to share with you.

1. Ignore all road markings, especially the one in the center that is painted in yellow.

2. All signs are suggestions, including stop signs and traffic lights.

3. Drive with your lights on at night only if you can afford to compromise on your mileage.

4. Do not use your turn signal. If you must use your turn signal, make sure not to turn it off until you have arrived at your destination.

5. Honk your horn under the following circumstances

   1. You are about to pass someone

   2. You are passing someone

   3. You have just passed someone

   4. Someone is about to pass you

   5. Someone is passing you

   6. Someone has just passed you

   7. You are about to make a turn

   8. You want someone to move out of your way

   9. You are about to hit someone

   10. Someone is about to hit you

   11. You recognize someone you know

   12. There is an ox in the road

   13. You haven't honked your horn in over a minute.

6. All vehicles are allowed on the road regardless of size, shape, or mode of locomotion.

7. If you drive a scooter you should drive unpredictably, go the wrong way half of the time, and make sure to utilize pedestrian walkways and crosswalks whenever possible.

8. When making a left-hand turn across a busy street, slowly ease your way into oncoming traffic, lay on the horn, and hope for the best.

The overall effect is something like Cornfest in a city of 6 million people where the roads are left open.

The Sleeping City

As the van/bus pulled away from the airport a long column of lights leading the way to the city loomed farther ahead in relative darkness. The few shops/apartments where people were still awake emitted the eery glow of fluorescent light bulbs without any covering. Alternatively, some people opted for an incandescent bulb with no lampshade. Neither option achieved a warm and inviting look*. 

Innumerable shops drifted past our windows. However, the idea of a shop in China is very different from the idea of a shop in America. Imagine replacing strip malls with rows of storage units, building two story apartments on top of them, and then removing all parking lots and you'll have a rough idea of what most Chinese shops look like. 

We finally caught a break from the barrage of storefronts as the van/bus approached the bridge over the Han River. The bridge happened to be one of the few things that was lit up in the city, while the mighty Han flowed beneath us, dark and silent. A few more turns and then we wove our way up the mountain valley where the campus of XFU is nestled and arrived at our apartment building going on 48 hours without sleep.  The whole trip was somewhat surreal. 

I drew a room key at random, made the ascent to the 4^th floor of the apartment building, opened the door, quickly surveyed the place, and passed out on a rather firm mattress. 

*A proper lamp with shade has proved elusive, guess it's not a thing here.

Departures and Arrivals

As I stepped down from the plane onto the Xiangfan tarmac I was greeted by the fresh smell of evergreen trees after a rain. I was surprised because I had read that many provincial cities in China are home to heavy industries that saturate the air with pollution*. Refreshed and encouraged by the clean air, I continued across the tarmac to the terminal. 

Baggage claim was easy to find because all arrivals, departures, and baggage claims are made from a room about the size of my apartment.  Amazing that an airport serving a population of approx. 6 million can be so small**. Also, relieved that both my suitcase and guitar managed to follow along from Chicago.

We were greeted by three representatives from the university who escorted us out to a van/bus that apparently had survived the 1970's and was still kicking. The interior smelled something like a pop-up camper from the same era – musty and woodsy – the kind of earthy smell that can only come from sitting in a damp forest for a long time. This van/bus would provide our first real window into life in Xiangfan. Observations from the ride will follow in the next post.

*Later, I would come to find out that Xiangfan has a variety of smells to offer, some fresh, and others... not so much.

**Pretty much everyone travels by train, few can afford to fly internationally.