KungFu and Gorges

15 October 2104, Wudang Mountains

The Chinese are interested in their history; they arrive in numbers at the well known sites like here in the Wudang Mountains, the Terracotta Warriors, the Great Wall and Tienamen square. But do they see the same things that we see? Do they know the historic context and is their conclusion based on a personal analysis or do they follow the party line? I may be too critical of the Chinese and realize that western tourist mostly do not think that far about sightseeing places. For me it feels as if the Chinese are looking for a missing link; their love of calligraphy, stones and Chinese paintings, their Tai Chi practice and opera singing and music playing are a search for the past. Religious practice is done but much less than with Chinese abroad. In Malaysia the Chinese community's religion is very visible and done by every Chinese, here it's practice is an exception.

Walking around the many tracks here you learn that many locations have been interconnected and intense traffic must have been the norm. Ancients footpaths have been re-build in recent time but are still visible. The access to this remote area seems to have been through the gorge I went in today. Descending about 500 meters the gorge starts and continues for about 7 km. Sometimes widening up and then becoming quite narrow again. In the past sometimes the gorge was inaccessible due to high water rushing through, closing off the whole area. At the entrance the Seven Dragon Palace controls the access. In old times pilgrims really had to be determined to complete the journey. Nowadays I admire the workers who still bring up bags of cement, sand, bricks and stone to build the excellent boardwalks, restore buildings and build refuges. Given the many miles of paths my mind struggles to grasp the immensity of the effort. But these same people, skinny and small also carry fat tourists up and down a thousand steps on a daily basis. I would not even be able to lift some of these 'loads'.

Contrary to western people who seek results on a short term basis (and the younger the more immediate the satisfaction is sought), Chinese can set themselves goals over generations; no complaints about the present and a stubborn persistence in a task set. Seldom they talk about their real desires but you can see an urge to save money for future education or long term investments. At least that applies to the poorer people.

Comparing Japanese culture to Chinese, we see as the big differentiator that Japanese people hide their true feelings much more. You have to be really good at discerning the true feeling of a Japanese. We linked that suppression in combination with a high social pressure to a high rate of suicide. The Chinese in comparison show their feelings much like westerners do, even more so if you judge it by the amount of angry voices we hear on the street to sometimes outright quarrels in public. We could not find statistics on suicide though.

Another difference you only realize when you see the glaring omission: no cemeteries! We puzzled about it as Chinese abroad have elaborate graveyard that are being kept for centuries and extensive rituals for ancestors. Some of those rituals are practiced here but the graves are completely absent. A bit of googling gave the answer: money. Graveyards that still exist are being sold for big money to build houses and for ordinary people buying a grave for their loved ones is finacially out of reach. In Shanghai you even get a bonus of 2000$ if you scatter the ashes of a deceased in the ocean!

17 October 2014, Wudang mountains

Yesterday we had an easy day; take the bus down to the Purple Cloud Palace and the Kung Fu Academy. Again an example of nice old architecture set against the background of a majestic cliff. We saw our first bird of prey in China, a large eagle. As the weather had turned and it was a bit rainy, we enjoyed hours of quiet in the palace, listening to birds playing, imagining life here in old times and watching a praying mantis, one inch long, attack Julie and then investigating her ring.