I just gave Mi Lao Shi a call; I won’t be going for any more pan guan bi lessons until after I get back from Singapore, and possibly until after the Olympics. This week has shown me that the security on the subway is extremely strict, and I’m not prepared to risk trouble by taking my weapons through the scanners. The alternative is to use taxis, but I don’t go directly to class, and I don’t come straight home afterwards, so that would mean using taxis all day, for multiple journeys. That’s too expensive. It only affects a couple of lessons, since we had in any case agreed to suspend classes at the end of July.

I was up at 5 again today – well (cough) I almost was – and met Sun Lao Shi just a little bit late. We moved to a different location, a promontory at the junction of two small rivers, with willows all around, and a small pagoda. The place where we’ve been the last few times seems to have been turned into a storage dump for building materials, and is now swarming with migrant workers and rentacops.

Our new location is pretty busy as well – a number of people (mostly retirees, it seems) were practising taijiquan and qigong. Nobody got in anyone’s way, though, and every seemed friendly and chatty.

We worked on the basic set for a while, particularly the transitions, before reviewing the ba da zhang. As I mentioned before, I have this memorised now, and Sun Lao Shi was able to start working on the details. He did this by starting to review applications, which helped a lot. Very cool. After that we moved on to the first two sets of the linear 64 palms. I’ve got the first, more or less, but I’m still having a lot of trouble with the second. I’ve filmed him doing this,
so I have something to work with during solo practice.

He had his short staff with him; I think that before I arrived, he’d been working on the Shanxi whipstaff form – heh, I hope so, because I definitely want to learn it! First things first, of course; let’s make a lot more progress with the bagua. I’ll meet him again on Friday morning, and then I think we’ll be taking a short break as he gets more involved in the summer camp. It’s a good time to review how far I’ve progressed… When I first met him, I was expecting to leave permanently in August, and he drew up a curriculum based on that. I’ve only achieved about 75% of that – due in large part to the job being a lot more time-consuming and tiring than I expected, leaving me less time and energy to practice between classes. I guess it’s also true that since I decided to stay in Beijing, I’ve slackened off a bit, as there’s less time pressure. These early-morning sessions are really good, though; very productive. I hope I’ll be able to continue them once term begins again…

At 8 we wrapped up, and I cycled down to Lush at Wudaokou to grab breakfast, before heading down to the Yiquan Academy for day two…

BTW, on the subject of the subway… Every time I’ve taken the subway in the last few days I’ve been stopped and had my bag checked in the new airport-style bag scanners. It isn’t just me, it’s everyone – they’re being very strict. I asked one of the police whether, as I’m studying wushu, I would be allowed to bring in my practice weapons…. and the answer was an unequivocal ‘no’. Since my bagua needles are actually fully functional weapons, I now have no intention of trying
to take them on the subway; it would mean confiscation at best, I think, and who knows what at worst. My alternatives seem to be taking taxis everywhere on Saturdays (including my class with Master Sun Zhi Jun, plus everywhere I go before and afterwards), which would cost me a fortune – or, stopping classes a couple of weeks early, and hoping it all gets a bit more relaxed after I get back from Singapore, by which time most of the Olympic events will be finished…

First of all, hi to everyone who’s arriving from the Pa Kua Journal! Thanks to the guys there for linking to me – I’m not sure that I warrant it, but it’s an honour nonetheless!

It’s a hot, hot day with blue skies in Beijing today. That makes a real change from the last week, which has been overcast, with regular, heavy thunderstorms. I need to read up more about cloud seeding; it’s generally assumed here that the recent wet weather is artificial, arranged by the government to clean the air, and make Beijing green for the Olympics. On the other hand, I haven’t read anywhere that artificially induced rain would be accompanied by the kind of electrical effects we’ve had – plus, there’s been all the floods in Southern China, so maybe there really is an unusual, but natural, cause.

Anyway… we’re into the Olympic season now. July 1st was the cut-off date for foreigners – if your visa ran out after that date, then forget getting a new one. Lots of people have had to leave, even if they’ve been here for years. The government’s taking no chances…. My visa’s good till the end of September, which is technically still within the non-renewal period (back to normal mid-October, apparently) but I’m hoping that by then, with the main Olympic events over, they’ll be more relaxed. My visa is legit, anyway, unlike many of the long-termers, whose visas were obtained through… let’s say somewhat less than 100% official channels….

The subway lines are all having their final makeovers. Most of them now have bag-scanners and guards with metal-detecting wands in the stations. I haven’t been scanned yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. That’s a bit of a problem for me, because I usually only use the subway on weekends – and on Saturdays, when I’m heading off to my pan guan bi (bagua needles) class, I am actually carrying offensive weapons…. Hmmm…. perhaps I should start using taxis for the next few weeks… but that’s going to be expensive….

The university campus where I work and live is hosting one of the Olympic competitions. For the last couple of months, new fences and temporary pavilions have been appearing. From next week onwards, we’re going into a full security mode – we’ll be issued with entry passes, and will have to inform the authorities of travel plans. The students are all being evicted, which is a shame. They’re all really proud that Beijing is hosting the Olympics, and they would really like to be here to witness it, but all students (and migrant workers) have been instructed to go back to their home towns during the Games. So, after their exams next week, off they’ll go…. Lots of them are Beijingers anyway, so they won’t go too far; a number of them have been coming up with money-making schemes, which they’ve been market-testing on me! What do foreigners think of…. How much would you pay for this….. Hehehe. The student dormitories are apparently all going to be used by foreign Olympic volunteers; that’ll be interesting.

Outside, there are truckloads of migrant workers planting vast flower beds, unloading potted trees on the pavements, all part of the effort to make Beijing look beautiful… and it does. It really does. I love this city.

So on that note…. I’m going to head down to the lakes at Houhai to enjoy the afternoon sun….