Monastery in the woods of Mount Shaoshi

As a kid I watched many Hong Kong martial arts movies, read many martial arts books and comics, watched replays and replays of David Carradine's "Kung Fu", and more then anything, I got inspired by Bruce Lee's philosophy. That was all when I was a kid. Pretty soon "serious" life kicked in, so I was not able to dream about mysterious and exotic places of "gung fu" and shaolin temples.

So when I was told that we would go to the known Buddhist monastery in the western world, famous for its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu, I got really ecstatic.

We flew from Shanghai to Zhengzhou, Capital of Henan province, and then drove to Song Shan - Mount Song.

Song Shan is one of the Taoist Five Sacred Mountains and it is located on the south bank of the Yellow River. The Shaolin Temple located on the mountain is the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, and even today the temple's collection of stupas is the largest in China. The Zhongyue Temple is also located here, one of the earliest Taoist temples in the country. The Songyang Academy nearby was one of the four great academies of ancient China. The mountain and its vicinity are populated with Taoist and especially Buddhist monasteries. I will talk more about the nearby Taoist temple in my future posts.

The Shao in "Shaolin" refers to "Mount Shaoshi", a mountain that was in front of me. The lin in "Shaolin" means "forest". Literally, the name means "Monastery in the woods of Mount Shaoshi".

Behind me is Mount Song

The Shaolin Monastery was built on the north side of Shaoshi, the western peak of Mount Song by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Jiaqing Chongxiu Yitongzhi (AD 1843) specifies that this monastery was built in the 20th year of the Tàihé era of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and for historians, it would mean that the monastery was built in AD 497.
I would frequently ask if this was possible, and I was wondering how all of this could exist in such ancient times.

There are couple of Kung Fu schools in nearby towns, and its pupils demonstrate their martial arts knowledge in the temple. I didn't want to miss it - so we went to see one the main shows. The show had a full house and what I saw in next 45 minutes really blew me away. I knew that some of these incredible things are somehow possible, but I've never seen it for real. And yes, these super humans can break metalic plates with their heads, they can pierce a thick glass with a needle, and they can break sticks that end with knives on their necks.

Breaking the wooden sticks with a bare neck

Well, I don't know if I described it well, as you might know, English is not my mother tongue - but, the video I am posting on Facebook might help you understand what I was talking about.

If you want to know more about the Shaolin Temple, you can continue reading below.

Kangxi, the second Qing emperor, was a supporter of the Shaolin temple in Henan and he wrote the calligraphic inscription that, to this day, hangs over the main temple gate:

"Shao Lin Temple" - meaning of the three characters above the main gate

Bodhidharma is said by the Shaolin monks to have introduced the sect of Chan (Zen) Buddhism to them at Shaolin Temple in Henan, China during the 6th century. Bodhidharma was also given the opportunity to teach what the monks called “18 Hands of the Lohan,” (non-combative healthful exercises).

Various styles of Chinese martial arts are said in some sources to have been practiced even before the Xia dynasty (founded in 2205 BC), styles such as Jiao Di, the precursor of Shuai Jiao. Not to mention Shou Bo kung fu practiced during the Shang dynasty (2,000 years before the Shaolin Temple's construction), and Xiang Bo (similar to Sanda) from the 600s BC, along with the hundreds of other systems of Chinese martial arts that have persisted from ancient times to the present day. There is a story that Huiguang and Sengchou were martial artists before the arrival of Bodhidharma, when they became two of the very first Shaolin monks.

The monastery has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Perhaps the best-known story of the Temple's destruction is that it was destroyed in 1644 by the Qing government for supposed anti-Qing activities (giving birth to the famous slogan "Destroy the Qing, restore the Ming!"); this destruction is also supposed to have helped spread Shaolin martial arts through China by means of the 5 fugitive monks Ng Mui, Jee Shin Shim Shee, Fung Doe Duk, Miu Hin and Bak Mei. This story commonly appears in martial arts history, fiction, and cinema.

The god of the snowy mountains

We decided to go to Yunnan province, instead of Tibet - as it is still hard to obtain a Tibet Pass. It turned out that it was our best decision!

We took a flight from Beijing to provincial capital Kunming, slept there one night and the next day took a flight to Shangri-La, mystical city in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The city is a real thing though - it really exists - and it posses all the mystic qualities one would seek for.
There is too much to write about this part of the world, so I will only write about one magnificient peak, that I thought it only comes alive in dreams - and yet, it came for real.
I will disclose some information about Meili Snow Mountain, and its highest peak, Kabego.
What can I say about my feelings, once I saw it, once I was so close to it? Well, if a nature is a mother, it shows is in its the most beautiful light there - I felt so little and so small - just by seeing it, by watching it, and after we learned about the mountain itself, we perhaps learned what allones is.

Kagebo, which means white snow mountain in Tibetan, is considered the god of the snowy mountains and a sacred place of pilgrimage for Tibetan Buddhism. A local tale tells how Kagebo became the patron saint of Jiajuba, a branch of Ningma School. Originally Kagebo was an evil spirit with 9 heads and 18 bodies. After been converted by Budda Padmasambhava, Kagebo became shipped by Tibetan people, usually Kagebo rode a white horse with a sword in hand. His majestic appearance was similar to that of the peak. It is said that if you climb to the top of the Potala Palace, you will see the shadow of Kagebo through the colorful clouds. Every year during the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, thousands of Tibetan Buddhists walk to Kagebo. During the year of the sheep in the Tibetan calendar, the number of adherents will multiply and the spectacle is very grand.

Kagebo Peak has been described as the most beautiful peak in the world by Joseph F. Rocker, American explorer and botanist. In 1986, the Panchen Lama Jianzeng once held rituals there. As usual, Meili Snow Mountain was enveloped in layers of clouds and mist. But as soon as the Panchen Lama recited scriptures and sprinkled some holy water, the clouds parted and Kagebo emerged from the mist. This has become a widespread legend among local people.

Mingyong Glacier sits at the foot of Kagebo Peak and looks like a long piece of white silk. Running from 5,500 meters down to 2,700 meters, only 800 meters above Lancang River, Mingyong is one of the few low altitude glaciers in the world. There is a 40km ride between Deqin and Mingyong Village, and then you can walk or rent a horse to get to the glacier. As the weather was changing we couldn't do much exploring, so we didn't go there.

In the south of Kagebo Peak is a waterfall, named Yubenshenpu (holy collapsing rain), coming down from a 1,000m high cliff. It is said that to be drenched b the water here will bring you good luck.

Kagebo is still a virgin peak, unconquered by mountaineers. Since the first effort was made by a British climbing team in 1902, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese climbers have all tried to scale the mountain, but all attempts have ended in failure. A joint effort by Chinese and Japanese climbers to reach the summit in January 1991 ended in tragedy when all the team’s members died in an accident. Their remains were not found until July 1998. An old man told us with a warning tone as a god: "How can human beings step on a god??"

Shinkansen

Last couple of days in Japan have been amazing. It also has been very extensive, so we are pretty much tired.
Everything in Japan is done in a high pace manner. Everything in Japan is super punctual. Also, everything functions as the best, well oiled machine.

I don`t have to mention it, but my japanese in-laws operate in the same space continuum. I must say that I miss my euro-north american slacking days :)

As a kid I heard a lot about Shinkansen, it was almost a myth, to read stories about the fastest trains in the world. And, perhaps there are similar fast trains today, in 21st century, in Germany, Spain, China, Taiwan、France...but I bet that none of them can beat the Shinkansen's average arrival time - it was within six seconds of the scheduled time, calculated from about 160,000 Shinkansen trips.

We bought a Japan Rail Pass, so it`s been easy to travel - only 'catch' was that we couldn't use it for Nozomi train service on Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen lines. And guess what - the Nozomi is the fastest train service - so we had to pay extra to experience the bullet train.

Doesn`t mean that other Shinkansen trains, Hikari and Kodama, are slow - on the contrary, they are also super fast, but the Nozomi trains are the only ones that go faster than 300 km/h.

The ride itself is hard to describe in words - it is necessary to experience it by yourself, and find it out. I was amazed how technology works on the most beautiful way, and how everything was moving without almost any noise. Only noise was generated when we were passing another train that was going in different direction. No doubt, difference is almost more than 600 km/h.

Well, enough about the speed and Shinkansen trains - I am very much overwhelmed by them, so I'll need some time to absorb and process everything. Well anyway, I could write about it for days.

Our next destination is Fuji mountain. I doubt we'll be climbing the peak (3776 m), but we are hoping for nice weather.

　

Korean DMZ

I didn't know much about korean demilitiraized zone - DMZ. I also did not know that there were tunnels below the DMZ, created by North Korea.

We went there - I was curious to see it with my own eyes. I could not believe that since 1950 this great country was divided, and it is still divided, and basically South and Korea are still at war.

I also did not know about the tunnels - so far there are 4 of them discovered, but who knows if there are more of them. North Korea built them, so they could capture Seoul, and the last one was discovered in 1990. The closest one to Seoul is the 3rd tunnel, only 52 km from the city, and it was open in 2004 as a tourist attraction. So we went to the tunnel - It is possible to go deep under DMZ, and walk through the tunnel, around 300 m, until you reach the baricades, put there by South korean army.

It all reminded me to our tunnel. To our Sarajevo tunnel. Difference is that we used our tunnel to survive, and the korean tunnel(s) have never been used, and if they have, they would be used for military attack. It was possible to get through 10 000 soldiers in 1 hr through the 3rd tunnel.

It was pretty cool to listen our tour guides who never accused their north neighbours for any aggression - they only want reunification with them, they see them as same people, and they only want to live together again. I think this is a genuine pledge.

South koreans dream about the day when they'll be able to sit in a train in Seoul and go all the way to Moscow, or London. They have plans to build it through Pyongyang - only question is if their north korean brothers and sisters will want that. If not, the only alternative is to build a bridge to Japan.

DMZ zone reminded me to my 4 years in Sarajevo. Crazy, totally. I did not know that North korean men have military service of 10 years, and their women serve 7 years. Crazy, totally crazy.

As I couldn't get into North Korea, you can read more about it in Christiane Amanpour notes from her visit.

Seoul and Cheju

Last night we went to 236 m tall Seoul tower, that is not even a half size of Toronto tower, but nevertheless, the night view was amazing. It was interesting to see distances to other places on Earth - more than 19 000 km to Buenos Aires - so I was thinking, our argentinian friend Andres, who we met in DMZ zone tour, had to travel almost a half of Earth's radius to come here.

We arrived to Cheju (Jeju) Island after short 1 hr flight from Seoul. It was a bit adventureous to find a terminal for domestic flights on Seoul's Gimpo airport - we thought it is located on a main Gimpo terminal, and even lined up to check in our luggage, but we were wrong - so we had to take a bus to go to the other Gimpo terminal.

Both of us were tired, I guess, after 3 weeks of intensive travelling, we are slowing down. I read a newspaper during the flight, even tried to read some korean - so far I can understand some of it as it is much simplier than chinese. I am not trying to say that I know it :), or that I am good with chinese - both of them are crazy hard for us to learn. Koreans used chinese until 15th century, when the king decided to invent a korean characters. Beacuse of this chinese influence, there are still many signs, especially historic ones, written in Chinese language.

Another adventure was going to our hotel - we couldn't rent a car in Cheju, because we didn't have an international driver license, so obviously we took a taxi. Well, our taxi driver didn't actually know where is our hotel, so we had to explain him where to go. All of it would be easier if both of us didn't feel sick from travel sickness - at the end the driver was pissed at us, we paid him 12 000 won, instead of 18 600.

We are facing Yellow Sea, that reminds me to the Baltic with its colour - I will find out tomorrow how is swimming here.

Someone was watching

I wanted to write about our great time on sunny Hainan beaches, but then, as I believe you know, there was a an earthquake disaster in China, so I felt I should've written about people sentiments here in Asia.

First of all, we are ok, we are lucky, it seems that someone was watching over us - we changed our departure date to Sichuan province, (where the earthquake happened), to June 2nd - so, when the land was shaking we were far enough, and on a safe ground. When I wrote on my Facebook profile, that "Boris survived an earthquake", I referred to the fact that we were supposed to be in Chengdu, Sichuan capital, on the day of the earthquake - but couple of days ago we felt we would go there in June, so Ada rebooked the trip.

So lucky!

I remembered again how my mom would tell me when I was little, that I was born under lucky star.

All of this means that we cancelled our trip to Sichuan, so we will not do Yangtze cruise, and we won't see all the wonders there - question is when will normal life return to this chinese western hinterland.

Since we arrived to Korea, we've felt average people concerns about this disaster. Our Korean friends, Jean and Jake, who waited for us on Incheon airport hugged us so hard when they saw us - and you might now that in asian cultures people usually don't hug each other. It is all over written in newspapers, and it's been broadcasted on many TV channels - our hosts in Blue House explained how the help is already being organized.

I believe it is similar in 'our' western world, people responded quickly to all of this - it is all different for me now, when looking from this angle, while being here.

I just hope that at least it will stop raining for people there.

Tomorrow we are going to DMZ (Demilitirized Zone) - another example of our insanity as human race - we'll go to "Panmunjom", Joint Security Area - where unlike any other place, the tension between 2 nations (or just 1, same nation) are shown, but also where you can realize the importance of the liberty and the peace.

Week One - Part 2

Hot and beautiful
It is very hot on Hainan Island. We are staying in the resort town of Sanya, on the southern tip of the island, and all I can say is - we are having great time! We flew here from Canton, as I remember its name from before, called now Guangzhou (at first all of these chinese names does not make much sense, but as time goes by, I am more accustomed to it).
Ada decided that I would enter China mainland on my feet, not by plane or by the boat - initally we wanted to fly directly from Macao to Sanya, but she changed our plan.
So, my first chinese experience comes from Macao-China border. Well, Macao is in China, but still has autonomy - you really get the taste of mainland once you cross the border.
Hong Kong and Macao got 50 years to get integrated to China, with special arrangements with chinese central government.

We took a taxi from our Macao hotel that took us to the border - and yes, it is a real border, international one - it is similar to one in Hong Kong, when you are crossing border to go to Shenzen - this means that you need your passport and chinese visa.
We basically walked to ZhuHai, China - that is the city adjacent to Macao - even though it was a Labour Day (in communist/socialist countries, May the 1st is called a labour day), and that means that people were not working, and there were many of them- we crossed the border quickly, without any obstacles. I was happy to get chinese customs border stamp in my passport, after Hong Kong and Macao. Before entering no-man's land, chinese police checked my passport - well, I looked different than everyone else on the border crossing!

There was a big square we entered after the border control, it was really huge, and I started realizing that in this world everything is huge and big. Sweet Sugar asked some policemen where is a bus station where we would catch a bus to Canton airport, and all of them were pointing in the wrong direction - we found it by ourselves, not far from the square, 300 m to the right.

I was in China now
This meant that there was no english (and portuguese) signs on street and in stores, so I was dependant on Sweet Sugar - well, she did get lost too, because there was so much mix between cantonese and mandarin, and I guess it is not easy to decipher them when they are mixed together. I was happy to see though that the major highway and services signs were still written in english. I could survive it somehow!!

It was funny how people were watching me, with some curiosity, as we were not part of any tourist group, and there were no foriegners here. I certainly did not mind it.

I liked the bus
Yes, there was so much leg room that I could almost lay down - so our 2.5 hrs drive to Canton airport was very pleasant. The highway was better than Alberta highways (and that is not hard to accopmplish if you think about Alberta extreme weather), and all infrastructure on it was very decent.
Sweet Sugar was concerned that I would complain about humidity, too many people, crowd, washrooms without toilet bowl (if I can say that), some of not that clean aspects of the bus station, but I was ok with that - I was used to it much before I came to Canada - in Bosnia and Croatia we have similar bus stations. And for having many people around, to the point it becomes very crowded, I was all ok with it. It actually resembles Europe, shows me that there is an intense life happening here. It was certainly such a contrast to a sterile lifeless Alberta (excluding Banff).
Well, I was better prepared for all of this than Sweet Sugar, as she was saying how it would've been better if we were flying from Hong Kong or Macao, instead taking the bus to Canton. I liked it though, to see how average people travel here, and how all of it functions.

As I am writing this, it is + 31 C, we just had lunch, tummy is full, there are no cluds above us, life cannot be better . I learned that the sun here is a real killer - last couple of days I stayed in shade, except when going snorkelling - I learned my lessons, no more sunburns!

Week One

Week 1

It has been amazing 7 days in Asia. Sweet Sugar waited for me in Hong Kong where she's been for last month - I was very excited to see her after more than 30 days.
I left Alberta buried under deep snow, well just prior to my departure I had the best skiing this season - and while taking off from Vancouver airport, the mountains were covered by snow...I knew I was going to warmer place, but I didn't know it would be too warm.

The flight was the longest in my life, Vancouver - Hong Kong, more then 13 hours, but very pleasant, as I had 2 seats for myself (lucky me!), and the aircraft, Boeing 777 has enough leg room (and I am only 180 cm tall :)).

Border crossing and customs control in Hong Kong was quick and painless, and I was entering this new world, a bit different than one I was coming from. It was so warm and humid in Hong Kong! Totally opposite from cold and dry Alberta weather. It was still April, but balmy 27 C greeted me in this stunning city. As a kid while watching Bruce Lee movies I was imaging and dreaming about Hong Kong and this world, how I would go there one day and see it with my own eyes, and now, I was here.

I am writing this in Sanya, on Hainan Island, the southernmost tip of China, where we are spending a week. It is 9 AM, it is tropically hot, skies are blue (it looks like there is more than one sky above me), sea water is blue green, and it is already....probably 29 C.

"I am badly burnt, but still alive", to quote famous assasin Mustafa, from Austin Powers trilogy - well, I made a mistake 2 days ago, decided to do some sun tanning, forgot for a moment that this is a tropical climate, and ultimately, I paid the price. It's been very painful, red and blistery. Ah, there is always something new to learn.

As there is so mych to write and say about the island itself, here is a link to more information to this tropical paradise.

Well, this is my first report from Asia - it's been overwhelming and great so far, so when I find more time, I will write more.

325 days

Glenda was right. When she told me in April 2007 that it will take "at least 8 months" to recover from groin injury.

When I heard that I thought that she was nuts, crazy, lunatic - why the hell I would be out for so long, because of this 'little' groin problem?

Glenda is my physio therapist. I met her in 2002, when I injured my left foot on Garneau clay. By playing tennis. Foot therapy lasted almost 4 months, but I still feel pain sometimes, when there is a big weather change. Next time I saw her in July 2004 - just a month before the Death Race - this time I injured my right foot. She had a tough job to make me fit in 3 weeks, so I could do the best (and craziest) race in the world. And she did- she made it, I made it. I guess, it was a double win, for Glenda, for me, and also my mind recorded the win - over matter.

And the last time I saw her, it was 325 days ago. Well, it was not really last time, it was my last injury and first appointment, and I hope when I see Glenda next time, it won't be because I am injured. It really sucks to be injured. With stupid groin injury. I could not believe that it would take so long to finally feel better - Glenda knew it, because she's treated numerous hockey players who were unlucky to injure their groins. And, I am not talking about 'groin'. I am talking about 'aine', 'prepona', 'leiste'...

I am planning to start running once I am back from Asia, and that will be in July, so I will be ready for some races in October. I hope I will be ready.

I have a new lucky number. It is 325.