Day Four - Tuesday 10th Feb - Kung Fu and Tai Chi in the streets
5:38 pm
•
Weinan Square Kung Fu Tai Chi Lao Wai
•
0
comments
A lazy day today after the hussle and bussle of Lantern Festival. (see post below this one for more info on that.)
Me and Tim agreed to meet at 7am to go for a walk around Weinan and see what we could see at the crack of dawn.
^ It was super dark, the moon looked pretty bad-ass.
^Everything was still and eerie. As you can see from the pics, Tim was nowhere to be seen, so I went back to my apartment to catch up on some blogging. 30mins later a tired looking Tim knocks my door. We headed out around Weinan.
^ Random dude getting his kung-fu on in the middle of the street. People passing by without even notcing / caring. I'm no Kung-Fu expert, but the guy was sharp.
^ One of the 3 or 4 crowds of people doing Tai Chi in the city square. Mainly older people, but definately not letting it slow them down. There were three or four crowds, as far as I could tell all doing pretty much the same Tai Chi routines, some with music, some without. Despite being 7:30am, there was quite a lot of action around the city, but the tai chi areas of the square definately had an air of tranquility.
^ I guess this guy was practicing Wushu? But, I mean...feel free to swing around your Halberd / long-stick-with-sword-on-the end in the middle of a public square. That thing wasn't blunt and the guy wasn't playing. I was hoping he wouldn't mind having his photo taken...failing that, I was feeling in the mood for a run. More kung-fu to the left.
^ I quite like this shot. Just a random old dude walking through the square going about his business, surrounded by a guy in BRIGHT YELLOW doing his thing and another one of the Tai Chi crowds in the background. China is rad.
^ More of the Tai Chi groups.
^ More tai chi.
After that we headed back to my place for a bit where we just kind of lounged around. Then at lunch we went and grabbed some food, we played Chinese-food-roulette; where we just pick random dishes from the menu. Tim knows the character for "meat" so I just go for anything with that in it. Dangerous game. Tasted like chicken. But...*everything* tastes like chicken.
Following that a trip to the supermarket. Chinese supermarkets are awesome. Everything is super cheap, and there's such a random selection of stuff. Highlights include "Calvinh Kiienh" shoes, a whole aisle of beef jerky, and Jackie Chan endorsed shampoo. Tim wouldn't let me buy any of the Jackie Chan shampoo, as the only two there were for "Dark Asian Hair" or "Men with Failing Hair" and Tim thought this would bring far too much amusement to the cashier.
*Everyone* in China stares at foreigners. You'll see people tapping people on the shoulder and pointing at you, then everyone else will spin around to look. You'll hear whispers / shouts of "Lao Wai!", which is basically "foreigner!" or people will shout "Hello!" Sometimes they're innocent and friendly attempts to communicate, but a lot of their time they're just trying to envoke a "funny" reaction from the Lao Wai. So, supermarkets are always a fun experience. Watching people constantly do double-takes, etc.
In the afternoon we headed into school where there were some things to sign / collect. Me and Tim went back to his place and both ended up falling asleep at about 5pm, and then woke up at 7. Pinky called shortly after and said he was on his way back into Weinan. He came around, we hung out for a while, then headed into town where I had my first Chinese KFC! It was bizarre, they don't really do pieces of chicken. Its mostly burgers and zingers and stuff. I had the one meal I could see on the menu that was 4 spicy chicken wings. The fries at Chinese KFC actually taste nice, unlike crappy UK KFC fries.
Walking home we stumbled by what we believe to be the only "bar" / "pub" in Weinan. Inside is like a smaller American bar, with a really bad selection of western music videos playing and a worse selection of western beers (Budwieser, Heineken.) Fortunately, they has Tsingtao, but it was ironically the smallest bottle I've had so far. (a regular, UK-sized beer bottle.)
We headed back to Tim's, chewed the fat, then I came home, sat on my ass, wrote some blog posts, and here I am. 2:00am now, going for another walk at 9am tomorrow. I may take my camera, not sure. I get a kick out of all the packaging for....well, everything! So I may make a post about my shopping, as Chinese Oreos and Pringles look quite funny.
Oh, and Chinese Pringles are about 20% smaller than UK ones! WTF! The tub looks normal, then you pull one out and you're less than impressed. Then half-way down the tub, and not even I could fit my hands in the tub! "This is China."
(0) Comments
Post a Comment