My new best friend's wedding

At 7.30am I was standing outside the clinic explaining to all the students i'd met from different clinics that I was waiting for my date! The wife was late as the doctor came late and ahead done her wifely duty that morning and left her husband in clinic with needles from top to toe. She then linked my arm in hers and we walked off campus who knows where.

We chatted all the way to the roundabout by carrefour and rode on the 75 bus for about 30 mins, past her house and then got off, popped in to say hi to her mum and dad (mum is same age as mine but hasn't had the travelling to keep her youthful). She squeezed my arm and asked me a heap of questions when I sat next to her on her bed where she and her husband were watching tele. At some stage she turned the volume up and soon after we left.

We picked up a bao mian = corn on the cob at a street corner and then marched on to a big building with a few groups of men or women standing around. Horror! Speed daring Chinese styley??? After a gaggle if gruff or Beijing opera screechy schoolfriends gathered we entered the building and queued for the list. By this stage there were enough visual cues to ascertain that I was attending a wedding...

...not mine I hope!!!

It was a loud drama that lasted just over an hour comprising a KTV - karaoke-singing groom walking back down the aisle singing 'wo ai ni' = I love you to his beautiful bride waiting under a heart-shaped pink paper flower arch. Only in China. How did Confucianism convert to kitch?

The mistress of ceremonies lined up the respective parents and poured red champagne into a cascade of flutes before a hug-the-in-law ceremony. Dinner of local delicacies and beer for about 50 large round tables of noisy guest lasted long enough for the wedding couple to make a toast at each table with lethal local bai jiu (white liquor).

I was lagging by this stage and relieved I had the excuse to return (for my afternoon nap and) of translating for the student hoping to go to America and also a trip with Guye's friend to get an ear model and ear seeds.

A wenzi wake-up

A persistent wenzi (mosquito) whizzpered in my ear at 4am that dawn was about to appear and I should get out of bed and greet the day in the park.

Beautiful sunny day in dao paradise!

Train ticket 10 days in advance

I did it. Bought my second class soft seat from Harbin to Beijing on Fri 24 Aug 08.50-17.55.

The travel gods were with me as my Chinese friends didn't turn up. But the friendly man was on duty and fended off the hostile battle-axe of a woman. Then behind me in the queue was s man who knew me from who knows where who helped read ruan zuo - soft seat off my phone dictionary.

I've got my blind date on Sat!!! A hemiplaegic patient's wife invited me to I'm not sure what but she appears at various clinics and the taiji park to remind me to bring my camera. Watch this space.

FANNY
I'm now the official translator 'fan ye' for a Philippino patient in tuina clinic with arthritic knees. She invited me tro KTV but fortunately I said I couldn't sing!

I've got dinner tomorrow at 7 fl kitchen. Sinrong, one of last remaining Malaysians, invited me then added there's alsoa new student from Thailand and one from Mozambique - never a dull moment. After that I've got a second 10pm Porsche date!!! The student who wants to go to US to make money as Dr needs me to speak to the college administrator in New Jersey at the local phone shop. Yes his dad's got a Porsche and will whizz me through the main streets - it would be quicker on my old bike!

Talking of 'heiselee' - little black one' - I'm going to have to retrace my streps to the bike seller as I have no takers from students, foreign or native. Sad reflection of the state of modern China!

Really being here

So I'm into my last fortnight and finally feel I'm living the Chinese nightmare - as opposed to the american dream. Only joking... just look at the pix. Lying on my back is a little painful and when Mr Massage put the bamboo cups on my back I felt the wind had been sucked out of me and I couldn't breathe. That's maybe the TCM way of reversing the wind invasion. I'll never complain about a morning snivel again. Maybe I should hack it up and spit out the 'accumulation of phlegm' and really be a local?!? I have to admit to finding this torture quite addictive! I was succumbing to the masochistic self-needling in the name of practice but now my research involves some fieldwork!

Actually I really am living my Chinese dream! I was walking back to my room in Liu Xueshang gong Yu with my new friend Yuan from Yunan who's a sweet taiji fanatic. We'd just finished pushing hands - the last hour of my 3hr evening practice - and were having a Chinglish chat where I speak in Chinese and she fills in the gaps with English and we'd frequently break off to discuss the etimology of a Chinese character. I've been given a great book and my brush strokes are coming along.

It's not a case of too liitle too late. More so much more to learn and less and less time. I'm almost regretting the comfort if classmates but that's been a great part of my China experience too tho there's been some hard lessons learnt there as well.

Which leads me back to tonight's midnight hour (I loved that late night Channel 4 programme -think that's when I first saw Germaine Grier, I digress with my late night ramblings...)

Psychology - half of my first degree and I feel I'm back there again with my latest readings from Maciocia the TCM emperor if the West. So Juan and I were trying to find the meaning of the two Chinese words for psychology - 'xin li'. Xin means heart, but li is confounding us. It's the same li as in 'wu li' that she teaches to pay for her studies. Wu 'it's in trees and clothes' I finally pinpointed as matter. But the li
is waiting for dictionary and the start of tomorrow's lesson.

As for the pushing hands - that's been a very sharp learning curve too. This pic is of my first encounter with my Hunyuan - primordial chaos- taiji group in March. The teacher (who disappeared within 2 weeks back home to Shandong Province, leaving me with his unruly bunch of students half of whom have become my 'Laoshi' and teach me different versions of the same exercise to confuse me. So now when I'm doing the form I have to be aware of which Laoshi is watching so that I mimick his or her version. Call me paranoid but.... I still haven't lowered my heightened sensitivity to acclimatise to the brash NE tendency to sound like they're having a full-blown brawl when they're just passing the time of day. The fisticuffs are not so uncommon here, especially in clinic!

So, back to that first chat with the teacher. I saw that his form was different Chen style but different and was too arrogant to be bothered to learn a deviant Chen style. So I said i was interested in pushing hands. He saw my Zhanzhuang (standing qigong) and said I had no Peng energy and made me stand with hands higher.

After 5 months Juan finally get together at the end of her practice around 9pm and push hands. The last time a classmate of hers came up and pushed me over - well almost. I sent an SOS email to my Chenjiagou taiji bro in Brisbane. His tips not only helped me to feel connected in the rear foot and feel the balloon in datian but miraculously the old knees stopped hurting. And of course the key is a calm mind and to play 'da' for the fun to learn to relax when being pushed and to use the other's push to root yourself...

So farewell dinners start next week and also a visit to famous Dr clinic with my Chinese buddy and lecturer who is a PhD student here with the aim of seeing some TCM treatments for cancer.

Foot massage & back to cupping

Wooaaah!!! Finally found a local massage clinic just by the market behind uni. Thought I'd ease myself into it with a foot massage before I let them loose on the rest of my body...

The funny thing was my basic language skills let me down a little and I was humming and ha-ing over the 35 or 40 RBM milk foot bath and at the end released that it was total price, not in addition to the 35RMB 30 min foot massage - ie £3.50!!

The guy was very sweet and poured the milk lotion into a beautiful wooden finnish sauna style foot bath, delicately laced with a PLASTIC BAG so that the bath didn't need a wash. Actually given hygiene standards or lack of them here it's probably a good thing. (Actually I ate my breakfast tofu soup out if a bag lined bowl - could have eaten it put of the footbath too!!) Mr Massage also floated a few dried rose petals and my hardened feet were left to soak.

Next I was lying on a bed and the lady (mother/owner) but a nice brown and beige Hello Kitty blanket over me. The first few strokes of the sole were pretty inane and I was about to slope off into my afternoon slumber when a pang of pain emanated from my etched big toe.

Unfortunately it was mainly guess work as to the cause of the pain from different parts of my feet reflecting different body parts. It was definitly stomach and i thought he mentioned chest so I gestured. Mr M said no and pointed at a more private female place to which I said 'Fu ke' - meaning gynecology!!!.... if you were wondering!!!

My milk bath 50p extra box came w 2 sachets of massage oil so the massage was smoother until... At the end he pulled out to little massage hammers!! On the soles it was a little more than tickley pleasant but on the top of the foot I have a few hammer shaped bruised. But I feel like my feet are now part of my body again rather than the cracked, hardened slabs of flesh covered bone at the bottom of my legs!!

Only 3 weeks left to get the rest of my body pummeled. May even work my way up to the 'guasha' - no, not a geisha!!! It's the stone or bone comb used to scrape the stagnation ie bruise to the surface!!! Maybe not in the week before I return or else there'll be talk of what the CCP has done to XiNing!!!

Post script:
Back in tuina clinic today - a welcome relief from the frenetic neurology clinic and within 5 mins I was fire cupping again and the Dr gave me the nod when he checked out my 'gun fa' - rolling technique unique to tuina. It was like being back in the family as the Dr and I nod or wave across the park every morning when I'm doing qigong and he's off on his daily walk.

The scan shows 'jing zhui bing' - cervical spondylosis.

The last month

... the last London South Bank Uni student and almost the last foreign student on campus!

Guye my Guangzhou classmate went home to start a business! and we had a hoot getting to the PO to send back our excess baggage (see photo of borrowed recycling tricycle!)

...and today was my last day in 2nd 4-week stint in neurology where I was feeding needles to the doctor and often given the odd point or two to needle - not so many as the Chinese students but I tried not to get a complex. But at the end of today the students were asking me which points the needles were in so I've definitely come a long way.

Although the patients and other students were a little wary of me at the start there are now a couple of patients who'd call out XiNing and get me to be in charge of handing the needles to Dr Cheng or ask me to 'xing zhen' twiddle the needles to get 'de qi' - that buzzy electric needle sensation. That's fine but when there's 30+ needles it can get a little tiring!

Thankfully Cheng Guan Yu the Dr's son helped to translate and although at times I thought the students all hated me or ignored me today was a nice ending and they enjoyed the Chinese equivalent to shortbread I bought them as a mid-morning treat.

Ahh refreshed after my long-awaited swim - they shut the pool for 2 days so my start the week swim turned into a small cycle ride round the forrest. This was a more relaxing, briefer ride than my Sat afternoon sortie to the Children's park. This turned our to be a run down Disney horror Chinese styley so I cycled round the perimeter and then ended up at the Russian St Sophia's church - still shut - before getting several sets of directions off locals back to Zhongyiyao Daxue (Chinese medicine herbs uni). It was an exhilarating ride thro crazy streets and I managed to find a few hours rain free.

The other big event was cooking Malaysian curry!! The wife of one of the Malaysian students/lecturers always chats to me in the park in the mornings and brought me back some curry packets. So yesterday I braved the local market and bought 1kg of chicken breasts (£1.80 a kg same price as the more prized legs!) and cooked up a storm in the 7th floor kitchen. In fact I've got 3 frozen dinners and another meal tonight. Just as well as even the takeaway people are off on holiday! It means I go foraging further afield for my supper and there's so much of Harbin and just the local area yet to explore.

I've finally found a nice tv to watch olympics - the pool lobby - and the grey morning by the Thames reflects the grey Harbin afternoon. I think I'm slowly being wheened back into British summer/autumn.

My other tv source, the noodle & jiaozi (dumpling) shop has proved unreliable - the Women's volleyball start offered false hope as it was followed by rifle shooting and weight lifting, then a b-rate Kung Fu/horror film when the kids took over.

So I had to resort to reading up on tongue diagnosis and atrophy disease! Good that I didn't keep the tv in my room as I'd be up all hours!

Well thank goodness team GB finally got some 'Jin pai' - 2 golds yesterday in rowing and cycling - I can show my face in campus again. The locals do concede that there are a lot if people in China - accounting for the 15 medals and counting!!!

Internet has been typically unreliable!

ONE DAY LATER - Sat 4 August
So I'm left to my own devices and by now I should know that the only thing you can depend upon in Harbin is the unexpected!!

I didn't set my alarm for 4 and strolled out to the park at 5.45!! My laoshi looked surprised but my soul feels refreshed. I went straight to my breakaway spot on the path and started 40 mins Zhanzhuang (standing qigong) with my Insight Timer app which has a lovely gong. So now I can add to the matinal cacophony!!

Then through much resistance I went through my old Chen XiaoWang reeling and 3 x LaoJia. The first time was a mental struggle but by the 3rd I was sweating and had drawn a crowd - of 2. Juan my little Yunan taiji friend was back from home and she and another if the most popular and expensive taiji old man laoshi's students came up and we chatted about mediation and forms. I wish my Chinese were better!! So tonight after refining to the primordial chaos fold I'll meet up with Juan for the long-awaited Tui shou - push hands.

It's taiji day and it's Harbin inspired lesson plans for Morley college today!

..and I'll nip out for a much needed local massage. I'll let them loose on my feet first and see how it is first!

Wudalianque: On the rails again

火 山
Fire Mountain = volcano

Coursework almost complete for 21 July deadline and I'm in a 'soft seat' 6hr20min train back fom volcanos of Wudalianque in NW.

(my temple motto - 'I am good enough' means I can go away and have fun even if it means possibly getting 5% less! Also less time to worry about work and just get on with it... good theory).

My traveling companions are Malaysian acupuncturists. Pie (who graduated 3 yrs ago and has been invaluable translating for me in oncology clinic) and friend have published amongst others a bilingual book of medicinal plants of Malaysia (see pic). Can't believe I'm on holiday with someone who takes more flower pics than mum! His excuse is that it's for medicinal purposes!

It was a much-needed return to nature and felt my soul come alive as I hiked up a volcano - even if I was on a Chinese tour with the guide singing karaoke to get us up the mt quicker!!!

Just as we got on the tour bus and off the train from Harbin to Beian yesterday the heavens opened but luckily we had a sunny eve for the first excursion to the ice cave and lava sea.

The famous Wudalianque (5 lakes that
were once a river which got pooled by the last eruption in 1723?) is famed for it's spring water which is surprisingly sweet and subtly sparkling. Then our group got marooned by a thunderstorm but I persisted and this other lady joined me and were rewarded with a soaking and a view of the moody lake - free of the herd.

This morning we were out at 6.20am, breakfasted and hiking up Heilongshan - black dragon mountain. It's only 526m but somehow reminded me of hiking Switzerland a few summers ago - maybe I've got a natural beauty deficit after big smog city life!

It was an even lovelier trip than expected but I'm looking forward to my student hall room 403 and my routine of 4.40 alarm for 5am taiji, clinic, lunch, power nap with TENS or cups or needles, study, dinner and twilight taiji. Outside this there's the weekly uni taiji class where I'm now solo as all my classmates hv now left apart from Guye who returns to Guangzhou in a week. So after essays are in I'll be back to 2 swims a week and more cycle rides to parks to amuse myself.