27/04/07 - Why Do We Spend All Our Lives Walking Forwards?

The other morning I got up at 6 am to go to the park for my first experience of Tai Chi. I have become good friends with an Australian guy called Alex, who is half Chinese but was brought up in Australia. He’s in Beijing studying Chinese medicine and is teaching part time in Daxing to support himself.

I sat side-saddle on the back of his bike to cycle down to the park, which was a fairly wobbly experience but provided extra entertainment value for my early morning Chinese audience. We arrived to find a horde of Chinese geriatrics congregating for their morning exercises.

Walking Backwards

It was a bizarre sight to see so early in the day, especially as many of them were brandishing swords and waving them around. Some were in groups, while others were doing their own special routines. These included rather odd looking exercises such as standing stationary while hitting themselves in various places all over the body, or simply walking around the park backwards.

Apparently, Alex once asked one of the people walking backwards why they did it. Their response was that they spend all their life walking forwards so they feel they should spend some time walking backwards. Obviously.

There are hundreds of different forms of Tai Chi; some use swords, some use fans, and some just involve movement. Alex taught me a couple of exercises that I attempted to reproduce very badly and then while he continued, I wandered around the park, soaking up the atmosphere and trying to avoid being stabbed by an OAP who’d lost control of their sword. I’m not sure I completely blended in as I was a good two feet taller than most of the participants and probably brought the average age in the park down by a good half a century.

Chinese Breakfast

Afterwards, we went to a local restaurant for some traditional Chinese breakfast. This consisted of a bowl of soft tofu in soup and a freshly made wheat bun, and cost all of 1.5 RMB (10p). We then went to a Tai Chi lesson at the university where Alex works. The class was teaching the most common form of Tai Chi which is found all over the country. It was hard, to say the least, especially as it was the third lesson in the course so I had to try to learn three lessons’ worth of moves.

Tai Chi is a martial art and so represents a very slow and elegant form of fighting. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even slightly achieve the second of those criteria. Just try to imagine a tall, rugby-playing white man surrounded by Chinese and Korean girls in the middle of a university gymnasium attempting to move his body gracefully through a series of slow combat movements. I’m sure it’s just a case of practice makes perfect.

A Beijing Birthday

It was Alex’s birthday last week so we went out to celebrate in Sanlitun, the famous bar street which is always full of Westerners. He’d put 700 Yuan (about 50 pounds) behind the bar, which for over thirty of us lasted almost the whole evening. You wouldn’t get that in London. We left at around 3am at which point I decided it be a good idea to go for fish and chips at a take away on the bar street. To my horror, my money was rejected when I tried to pay for the cod and chips. It turned out that I had acquired a forged 50 Yuan note at some point the previous day.

Forged Money

Forged currency is quite a big problem over here, but as usual I had just assumed that noone would be foolish enough to try and palm some off to someone as intelligent and perceptive as me. However, they did, and it worked, so perhaps I need to review that assessment of myself.

I was angry, even though the note was only worth just over 3 pounds. Luckily however, it turned out that Bob had wanted one of these fake notes for a while and it was his birthday the following day, so I generously gave it to him. What a kind friend I am. I also gave him my old fish tank since for some reason, all my fish died. I’ve no idea why. I think it must just illustrate how bad the tap water is over here.

On that rather sombre note, I will finish. I hope you are well and are looking after England for me.

See also Lao Beijing Blog