Interlude Part 2

Last weekend Rachel and I participated in a karate Tournament. We both managed to come home with some chunks of plastic! I got 4th in weapons (I was competing against super good black belts!), 3rd in bunkai (forms with people punching in), 3rd in kempos (short techniques), 2nd in forms, and then 1st in sparring. Rachel got 2nd in weapons (she was in a different division than me...) and 4rth in sparring.

If you are interested there are pictures that were professionally taken at this link. You can view any of the pictures. I'm in adults weapons, and red belt divisions. Also some random pictures of me in the kids photos, where I was helping judge. From this link you can also purchase any pictures that you like. So mom, you can update those photos I gave you if you like!

After the tournament Rachel and I went to see Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center, which was pretty awesome. I don't see too many musicals, but for some reason hearing dialog sang took some getting used to...

Cliffs of Shaolin

Here is where things got interesting. You see, we were supposed to go from Xi'an to some other city that I can't spell or remember really. Namely because we didn't end up making it. Supposedly there was a monsoon, meaning our flight was canceled. The result was that we got the chance to go to the Shoalin Temple a day or two early. The total time was 4 days of training at the temple, which was awesome! The training at the temple I"ll most likely talk about a bit later. But basically it was we got there at about 8:30, trained for a couple hours, broke for lunch, and then came back around 2:30ish to train for a few more hours every day. In between we had about 4 hours. The first day we decided to go to the cliffs of Shaolin.

To get there, we picked up a random man with a van that just happened to be willing to drive us where ever we could manage to explain to him using mainly hand gestures. The trick was, there was 8 of us going, and, the van wasn't really that big.
The results were amusing. Nevertheless we managed to get where we intended to go, and it was a gondola. We took the gondola up the cliffs and mountains to the top, where there was a trail. The trail was supposedly 12 miles long, one way, at the end was another Buddhist temple. Sadly we didn't have time to make it all the way there, but we did marvel at the beauty of the area.

According to Master Williams, the one who led us here, there are warrior monks from the Shaolin Temple that *run* to the temple and back every morning. Yes, 24 miles, pretty much a marathon, in some pretty hilly (pretty sure uphill both ways) path along the side of a cliff. I'm not sure I believe it, but I want to.

Anyways, not much more to say about these cliffs, besides that they were amazing, and 2 of our group members was afraid of heights lol. I hope you enjoy the pictures! There are a lot of them, because they were pretty cool.

Xi'an and Terra Cotta

Today's Update is going to cover Xi'an. In Xi'an was the Terra Cotta warriors.... but I'll get back to that.

Xi'an was the capital of the first Chinese dynasty. So the history there was pretty massive. It was an ancient city, even still having city walls and a moat! How cool is that? DC needs a moat. I digress. Here we visited a Buddhist temple, stopped by some artist shops, where I got Rachel's gift. And had a brief lesson on Chinese calligraphy. Ultimatly it was a pretty cool city. Lots of construction going on there.


While in Xi'an we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.
As I mentioned Earlier, Xi'an was the capital of China's first dynasty (as seen in the movie Hero with Jet Li). The terra cotta warriors then were built for the burial of China's first emperor. He built an entire army and then burried it underground guarding his tomb. Facing East, towards his enemies. The name Terra Cotta is actually latin for "baked earth", and perhaps shows the Western influence on China. It was definently pretty cool to see though. The increadible detail in the soldiers. The horses, which you may or may not be able to see how tiny they are. No wonder the larger western horses were so valuable in China. There were two sections that we saw. The first had the army open for us to see in all the detail. Then at some point they realized that the army was held under a wooden overhang, protecting them from the earth. And that hey, this is an archaeological dig and we should keep it in tact.... So yeah, the second section is a view of..... dirt mounds /facepalm. Anyways Terra Cotta warriors? Pretty cool stuff.

In related news, evidently they know where the main part of this emperors tomb is, but China refuses to let them access it until they can prove that they can preserve it. Also, it is rumored to have rivers of mercury. That sounds like a pretty cool looking river to me!

Interlude

I interrupt these pictures from China to provide an update.

The end of the fiscal year, came, and then went. I managed to survive! The good news now though, is that I have advanced far enough at work that today I moved into an outer office. So you know what that means! Sunlight! My office is pretty good. Just looking outside my window I can see kinda an overhang which is a bummer. But. When I stand up I look East into DC and I can see the Potomac river. So overall I say its pretty cool.


Sorry the picture sucks so much.... too much sun!

Also last weekend both Rachel and I tested for new belts. Rachel is now a Blue Stripe, and I am a Second degree brown belt. For those who are keeping track, that means there is only one more belt between me and black.

Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven.

This will conclude the part of China in Beijing, so about the first third of the trip. I must say I managed to take plenty of pictures....



First up is the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace of course is the place that was made by the emporors of China for their vacation retreat. And yeah, I said "made" not built. That massive lake? Manmade. That hill with the building on top? Manmade. Benefits of having unlimited slave labor? You're very own to order summer residence on a lake where there is no lake.

I'm going to start out by saying that for all of that, the summer palace was probably the place we visited that I enjoyed the least. Though, to be fair that wasn't because it wasn't impressive, but because it was probably the place where it was the most hot, and most humid of anywhere we went. Plus, it was packed. Hot, humid, and crowded, no thank you. On top of that, the visit here felt... rushed. We never got to take a boat out onto the water or go visit the part of the palace that was up on the hill. Small things perhaps, but, it all added up to the least exciting place to visit.

The coolest thing about the place though was its history associated with the Dragon Lady. The Dragon Lady was the western name for the Dowager Empress of China that ruled in the late 19th century. Supposedly she came to power as a favored concubine, and then when the Emperor died, she managed to maneuver herself into regent for her son, the new emperor. And then when he died at a young age, she again managed to set up another puppet emperor. That being said it's hard to determine if she was a good ruler or a bad ruler based on what was told. Some blame her for the fall of the Chinese imperial house, as right after her rule the imperial house collapsed. (Note: watch the move the last emperor of china). On the other hand she was a powerful ruler that ruled during an important part of history, and helped establish many relationships with the West.

There is lots to be said about her, but alas with respect to the Summer Palace, this was where she would keep the Emperor while she was ruleing. Making it his prison more or less. At the same time we were shown where The Dragon Lady's rooms were, and we were told, but weren't able to go through, a secret tunnel that connects her room to the head Eunuch room, who they theorize wasn't really a eunuch....

Anyways, here be pictures! Again in slide show form....



Next up was the Temple of Heaven.
This was the place where the Emperor would go every year to pray, to whatever God he prayed to, for good harvest and good rule and the like. Not much more to say about this. The whole compound, mainly including the grounds, was larger than the Forbidden City. The buildings themselves significantly smaller.

The really cool thing about the Temple of Heaven was just that the building, as seen in the background in the picture above, was made out of wood, without using a single nail. It is considered the pinnacle of this Chinese wood building technique where they don't use nails. It really was very nice, and quite beautiful. Supposedly it is the only building in China with that three tiered roof design.

Great Wall of China

So I'm going to try something different here with the pictures. I'll see if a slideshow is okay for everyone? The advantage is that it takes a lot less time to put together these posts, as I don't have to sift through all the pictures. Plus the bonus is that you get to see all the pictures and not just a handful of them that I have chose as the best.... I hope this works out, and I would love to know which one you prefer.

The great wall runs along the western and northern part of China. It just so happens to also be in the Northwestern portion of Beijing. So of course while we were there, we had to go visit the wall. I will take this moment to point out how massive Beijing is. Not just in view of population, which is quite massive, but in area. There really aren't many skyscrapers in Beijing. Instead the entire city is spread out over a massive amount of area. Thus, the Northwestern portion is found the Great Wall of China.

The interesting thing about the great wall of China, is that for a long time it was seen to the Chinese as a symbol of oppression. As you can image, thousands of workers, basically slave labors, over hundreds of years were pulled into making this behemoth. Many deaths are found at the base of these walls. And so for a long time, the Great Wall of China was not a symbol of pride at all. Until one day, an American president, I think Nixon.... I'd have to double check that, visited China, and made a point of going to the Great Wall and exclaiming over how amazing it was. Since then, the Western perspective, that of the Great Wall being a great Wonder of the World has prevailed. And, as you can see in the pictures, hundreds of thousands of tourists from China and abroad visit the wall, and it is seen as a national symbol and a thing of pride. But this is, a new found sentiment.

Anyways, the Great wall is a massive sprawling beast, extending as far as the eye can see in both directions. Interesting fact is that it is made winding, and has rises and falls because demons can only walk in straight lines. No kidding. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the pictures. This was one thing that I've always wanted to do in my life. Visit the Great Wall of China.

China - Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City

Here is a first of a series of posts and pictures on my trip to China. I'll start with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

First off Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is called the political heart of China. There people can visit the tomb of Mao as well as view symbols of happy Communism.

Here is part of the line to view the Tomb of Mao. This thing took up the entirety of the square and people wait in line for like five six hours or something to walk by the tomb for ten seconds. Crazy.

Just outside of Tiananmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City, with a nice portrait of Mao right outside of it.



The Forbidden City was massive having 999 rooms containing many building courtyards and even small streams inside of the city. Rumor has it the Emperor who had the place build was so scared of people tunneling under the walls, he made the ground have 30 feet of brick. Amazing what you can do with an unlimited supply of slave labor!

My favorite part of the Forbidden City was definently the gardens. There were rock gardens, gazebos and trees there. Keep in mind this place was the home of over 1000 concubines that were more or less imprisoned in the forbidden city. I imagine these gardens was where they would spend most of their time. They were nice, but I wouldn't want to live my life there.....

So, there are no hills or mountains in or around Beijing. This one here was built by said slave labor. Turns out if you dig up thirty feet of ground to lay brick, you are left with an excess of dirt. Excess of dirt can become small mountains/tall hills. All this to satisfy Feng Shui which teaches that you need a mountain on the West end I believe. Anyways the whole of the Forbidden City is meant to be the masterpiece of Feng Shui, and everything is meant to allow for the flow of chi.

Anyways this is the end of my first post. Above is the picture of the group of us from Potomac Kempo that went. All of us minus Sensei Santillo who is behind the camera.

I'll try to put out as many posts as I can. These take a long time to write, as I have hundreds of pictures. I hope you like them!