My Recent Taichi and Kungfu Adventure in Yangshuo China

wushuhero (47)in #martialarts • 6 years ago (edited)

Han Yu A Famous Poet from the Han dynasty once described this part of China as "the river winds like a green silk ribbon, while the hills are like jade hairpins" (江作青罗带, 山如碧玉簪).
The beauty of Yangshuo and Guilin are like no other place on earth, the first time i went there was back in 2014 and it blew me away, it was strait out of a fairy tale wuxia novel, minus the pollution and tourists, but once you look past all the negative it is truly a paradise on earth.
This past winter i quit my job and took a 4 month trip to Yangshuo china to study the art of Taichi, Qigong and kungfu.
It was everything i could of imagined, training in such a beautiful environment, even the school looked like it was strait out of the han dynasty.

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The training would be an all day event. The first class would start at 9am and end around 11:30am , then everyone would take the afternoon to rest, the next class would be from 3-5:30pm and then dinner at 6pm. Me being a keen athlete as this is not my first time doing this type of all day training, i would wake up at 7am and run and do weights for 45mins first before breakfast. At this time in the morning the air was the freshest and i also was able to enjoy the scenery during my morning runs along the Li river.

Sometime i would wake up in the morning and pinch myself as i could not believe i was living in such a beautiful environment.

I also rented a small room in the village nestled in the mountains, at a very cheap price about $650 us per month, that included 3 meals a day, private bath and a bicycle.

during the weekends we would bike around and explore the environment, local villages and coffee shops, it was definitely a dream come true, i never wanted to leave this place. The weather was warm during the day at cold during the evening but it was a small price to pay for the experience i was getting. I also made many local and foreign friends during my stay and we still keep in touch over wechat to this day. I cant wait until i can go back and live the dream once again.