Each year in Quanzhou City there is an international conference that welcomes all serious practitioners of ‘Wuzuquan’ – a kungfu system that was created in this city in recent centuries. Quanzhou is located towards the south of Fujian, itself a south-eastern province of Mainland China. In 2007, during a martial arts research/study visit to Manila, Philippines, I had been invited to attend the next ‘Annual International Quanzhou Wuzuquan Conference’ scheduled for later that year.

“This next meeting will be a very important one” said Wuzu master, Henry Lo of the ‘Gong Han’ Wuzuquan school in Manila’s Chinatown. “It would be nice if you could attend.” I did not take these words lightly. He was not insisting that I attend but I do know that he would really appreciate my making the effort. The idea did appeal to me and I really did want to support Master Lo and so I decided there and then that I would go.

This invitation was not the first time Master Lo had invited me to this event. Ten years early he had first informed me of this annual meeting but the time had ‘not been right’ way back then or in subsequent years. Now, I felt, the time was right! 

* * *

Although the flight from London to Hong Kong was not the best of flights I have experienced, it did not dampen my spirits nor my acute sense of adventure! The direct flight had taken eleven and a half hours and the time had passed so very quickly for it had been an overnight flight where I did, for once, get some decent sleep.

Outrageous when I think about it, but this was my first trip to Hong Kong (and, indeed, to Mainland China) since 2001. I had not been this way for more than five years and that I found, upon reflection, to be absolutely awful! But here I was, back on that path.

Whilst I was in the UK I had not been able to secure my onward flight from Hong Kong so this task awaited me once I was on the ground at ‘Chep Lap Kok’ (the name given to the ‘reclaimed island’ where the new Hong Kong International airport now stands). This proved to be a mini adventure in itself, but finally I did hit upon a plan of action: a bus from Hongkong to Shenzhen airport where, I was told, I could then purchase a flight either to Quanzhou or to Xiamen. Either, for me, would be good.

The one hour bus-ride from CLK to Shenzhen (the southernmost gateway to China) via Lo Wu (on the Hong Kong side) was a most picturesque one, taking us past quaint-looking fishing villages to my left and mountain-size boulders on my right.

Arriving at Lo Wu everyone disembarked from the bus in order to ‘officially leave’ Hong Kong, then clambered back onboard the bus where we were then driven for a mile or so (through ‘No Mans Land’) before we got off once more in order to ‘officially enter’ China (through Shenzhen). At this point I was directed to a mini-bus that would take me to Shenzhen airport.

Half an hour later and I was starting to worry – just ever so slightly – as there had not, so far, been one single solitary airport sign in sight. Just road signs telling us that we were going somewhere else. All part of the adventure I mused! Deep down inside, though, I knew that I was on the right bus, but one reassuring sign would have been nice.

* * *

 Shenzhen airport finally appeared although it did, in fact, go under a different name!

 Once inside the Terminal building I went in search of my next air ticket! Although I spoke more Chinese than the ticketing girls spoke English, purchasing my ticket was a little tricky, but finally I secured myself a one-way ticket to Quanzhou. It was not leaving for a good three hours, but that was fine. I would read, and also do some laptop work.

The flight to Quanzhou was with ‘South Eastern Airlines’ and lasted no more than an hour. I arrived at  Quanzhou around 10.20pm but found the airport to be totally closed for the night. Leaving the airport I just started to walk as I followed my nose in search of a hotel. If I could not find one I would grab a cab and stay somewhere in town. I had not walked more than twenty paces before two taxi drivers came charging over towards me in order to get my fare. One won, the other lost. The man that won took me to the downtown area of Quanzhou (a fifteen minute drive) where he left me outside a cheap hotel. That is what I had asked for and that is what I had got!

The fare had cost 50 Chinese Dollars (50 Yuan), and after a lot of searching through my various currencies I finally managed to find just that. I paid the driver, thanked him, and went in search of ‘my room’.

Inside, the hotel manageress was friendly enough, but she would only take ‘Yuan’, and all I now had was either Hong Kong Dollars or English pounds. I thanked her and made a U-turn.

Stepping outside the hotel I was going to go in search of a Money-Changer but my gut feeling was that I would not be in luck. But I started to walk anyway, and as I did so I passed by a group of young ladies (teenagers for the most part) who were hanging-out outside a roadside store. ‘Shall I or shalln’t I ?’ I asked myself.

Oh what the heck!

Approaching them I smiled, and they smiled back. Asking them in my broken Chinese, the gist of what I asked was them was ‘Can you change 100 Hongkong Dollars for 100 Renminbei (Yuan)?’ They would clearly be winning from this transaction although I am not altogether sure that they realised that! For the next few minutes they were ‘umming’ and ‘erring’ amidst cackles of laughter. These girls were cool!

As they each, in turn, held my dollar bill up to the light I assured them that it was real and genuine. One of the girls asked me if I had US Dollars. I told her, in my very best and emotive Chinese, ‘You are very naughty!’, and that made them all laugh. They then decided to do the deal. I thanked them all profusely and went back to the hotel and booked myself in. 70 Yuan for one night. Not bad. About £5. The room was okay. Six floors up, but that was fine.

Climbing the stairs I saw that every floor had a large picture of a naked Chinese girl although not in a distasteful way. The hotel was loud, and I was wandering just what sort of a hotel I had booked myself into (!) but no-one bothered me that night. In the morning I would call the Quanzhou Martial Arts Association and relocate to where the conference was going to take place.

The next morning at 8am I checked out of the hotel and called the Wushu Association at the same time. Unfortunately, however, neither I nor the hotel receptionist downstairs could get a dialing tone. Instead, an automated message said that the number was wrong. Must be the phone, I thought to myself. Never mind. These things are sent to try us! I thanked the young and attractive lady for her help and went on my way.

Right now all sorts of scenarios and plans of action were going though my head. First of all, though, I would start walking back the way I had come the night before in the  taxi for I knew there were some hotels on the way, and most probably some banks. I would find a bank, change some money, find a hotel and then call that number again.

During a good hour of walking I found no banks that were open but I did come across one hotel – one I remembered from the taxi ride. It was the ‘Powerlong Hotel’ in Jinjiang (the town where Quanzhou airport is located). There I was assisted by another lovely young lady (the ‘Assistant Manager’ whose name was Connie Hu). She helped me for quite some time, calling one number and then another. She then helped me to change some money and then organized a taxi for me. I was now off to the ‘Humei Hotel’ where I would be met and then be taken to the ‘Huaqiao Xuexiao’ (the ‘Overseas Chinese Hotel’). On the way I spoke with Henry Lo (on the phone) who had just arrived at Xiamen airport. He and I would soon meet and then, together, take some lunch. I checked into my room and waited for Henry.

It was now late Thursday morning. I had been travelling since 8pm on Tuesday and it had been quite a long, eventful and, for the most part, enjoyable journey. Last night and this early morning I had to put up with the intrusive din of honking lorries every so often. Here though, high up on the eighth floor, what noise there was from down below was just gentle murmurs.

My room was rather plush, living up to its rather expensive price tag (306 Renminbei per night – about £20). But what the hell! The whole idea is that I enjoy myself and so that is what I was going to do! Sitting at my Mahogany desk I caught myself wondering just what the next few days were going to bring! Looking out my bay window and I could see that the view was not so attractive although down to my left there was a lovely saffron temple that I was just going to have to explore!

I phoned down to the front desk to see if my friend Lo Zi Ming (Henry Lo) had arrived. He had not, yet soon after my phone-call he was knocking at my door. We chatted for a while then he left saying that he would call on me again very soon – for lunch.

Lunch was downstairs in a private room. A dozen or so of us sat around a table – Henry, myself, two other Filipinos, and a healthy group of local martial arts veterans.

After the meal everyone returned to their rooms for an hour before reconvening for the afternoon at a not-too-distant stadium where we would be seeing some kungfu fighting bouts: Five Ancestor Fist versus Five Ancestor Fist, and Five Ancestor Fist versus Yongchun White Crane with a little bit of Snake-style thrown in every so often! This proved somewhat interesting although quite tedious at times (not the ideal spectator sport to watch if you are jet-lagged!) and so re-inforced my belief that if this kind of activity (the serious practice of a deadly martial art put into a semi-contact ‘arena’ where strikes have no content and no-one gets hurt) then it needs to be thought through again but this time more thoroughly.

Perhaps I am just being boring and perhaps I am missing the point (is this merely a bit of fun and not meant to be taken seriously?) but if there were to be any kind of competition in Chinese kungfu then I would think it to be far better to have a forms-based competition (just like in ancient times) and a forms structure test-based competition. I wonder how many of today’s competitors would have passed a ‘sanzhan’ and a ‘ngokilat’ structure test!) But I can imagine the response to this idea (“That would be so boring to watch – who is going to sit through hours of that?”).

If this were to be the response then it would seem to me that a ‘self-development art’ has been reduced to an ‘audience appreciation priority sport’ where image, cosmetics and illusion are far more important that actual ‘depth’.

It seems to me that either you are learning kung fu for its sports aspect or you are learning it for its deeper value. Tearing oneself in two seems pointless to me as does changing one’s course half-way through one’s life. Perhaps this is because we tend to go through life not knowing which path we are actually on! All along I have known which path I need and want to be on.

At this stadium I met with lots of senior martial artists including a master named Su Ying Han of the Yongchun Baihequan wushu (kungfu) system. Master Su I had met some six years earlier at his home in Yongchun village, Fujian province. It normally takes a lot to render me speechless, but when Master Su looked at me and rolled my name (‘given’ and ’family’) right off the end of his tongue I was quite taken aback! Of course, someone may have told him in advance that I would be around for this event, but who is going to talk about me when there are so many martial artists far, far senior to me to in town???

My departure from the stadium came as quite a relief although it was good that I had seen this for now I could have a valid opinion. From here we drove not even five minutes before the van stopped right outside the entrance to the Quanzhou “Shao Lin Chan Si” (the Southern Shaolin Chan-sect Temple).

(Above: Master  Henry Lo, myself, two 5AF students from the Philippines and one of the Quanzhou Shaolin Temple monks) 

 

Although the undying question “Where was the original Nanshaolinsi actually located?” still promotes deathly hushes within academic circles, this temple has not been built as a mere ‘tourist attraction’ or ‘political statement’ but rather as a serious attempt to preserve and promote genuine ‘South Shaolin Wushu’. This complex is truly amazing and is built in strict adherence to fengshui ‘law’. I can see it being a potential Mecca for serious Wushu fanatics who can study martial arts here under teachers that are 1,000 per cent true to their cause.

Prior to our leaving the temple we were told about the huge bell and the large wooden beater that is slammed into the bell.

“This bell we ring at 4:30 in the morning”, said one Shaolin monk.

“I will listen for it tomorrow morning,” I said. “I will get up especially.”

“I don’t think you can hear it from the hotel. Only on very clear days.”

And on that note we left – back to the hotel and back to reality!

This evening we were dining at a five-star hotel – the “Quanzhou Hotel” no less, which is an iconic building here in the city. This was at the very gracious invitation of the Quanzhou mayor, himself a dedicated Five Ancestor Fist practitioner in previous years. All told there were more than twenty of us at this dinner including some “CNN” staff who were televising the kungfu fighting bouts for both national and international broadcasting.

To round off an exciting day I was checking out some authentic Thai massage in the hotel when I was informed that two more martial arts dignitaries had just been spotted: Bonifacio Lim of New Jersey (USA) and John Graham of Alabama (USA). After having been introduced to both men we engaged in conversion for a while before going our separate ways. Undoubtedly we would be seeing more of each other over the next few days as the whole point of this international meeting was to meet, network, exchange, and talk. I returned to my room reflecting upon a wonderful day – a day that marked just the beginning of what I felt was going to be a very special conference and one where I felt privileged to be attending.

That night I slept early and, as a result, was up early too. Working on the latest version of my ‘Sanshangong Student Handbook’, more than an hour had elapsed when I was suddenly hearing the sound of a distant bell. A distant temple bell, no less! Glancing at my laptop clock I saw that it was, indeed, 04:30 hours. I guessed that this morning must have been a clear morning. 

As Quanzhou began to wake up the outside darkness began to lighten. Before I knew it it was already seven o’clock and I decided to take a walk around the hotel’s immediate vicinity. My first stop was the temple across the road. Small, quaint, and surprisingly quiet, this waterside temple was already busy with mature ladies praying to the various deities inside whilst men sat, smoked and played cards outside. Looking out across the water I could see an interesting pavilion shrouded in low-lying mist – an ideal place for taking some tea, do some exercise or just relax.

From the temple I strolled along the waterfront beneath a canopy of overhead trees. I stopped for a moment just to ponder and after just a few seconds I became acutely aware of some movement behind me. Glancing round I saw a middle-aged lady giving a middle-aged man a massage. Leaving them to it I walked on further and then crossed the road. This led me to a side-street which was not actually a side-street at all but rather an entrance to a beautiful Chinese garden! Almost immediately did I come across a few Taiji players who looked quite interesting, but soon after that I stumbled upon another larger group of Taiji ‘players’ which really did impress me.

This second group impressed me because it was led by a woman who must have been in her late fifties if not her sixties and not only was she teaching the Taiji form (the Yang Form 72 Step) but the applications, too! There were approximately eight in her group: one man, two young girls and the rest were middle-aged ladies. All were training seriously and all were having the time of their lives. This whole scene moved me. I dearly wished to capture this on video so that I could defend my corner back home when I attempt to encourage more females to look at the self-defence aspect within Taijiquan.

Behind this group was a man all by himself and lost in his own little (or perhaps, grandiose) world. What he was practicing I do not know (at a guess I would say that it was either Taijiquan or Xingyiquan) but it was most impressive. I stood there alone, videoing away to my heart’s content.

Neither the teacher nor her students objected to me filming them as they continued their practice. After some time the teacher beckoned me over. We engaged into a little light Mandarin conversation during which I informed her that back home in England I was learning the ‘Yang-shi Ershisibu’ form (the Yang-style 24 Step Taiji Form). Upon hearing this she invited me to perform it with her after which she then took me through the complete Yang-style Taiji form (what I am assuming to be the ‘72 Step’ form). Both my performance and my attempted performance went down very well with the group.

Checking upon the time I learnt that it was already 8:15. I was late for my breakfast appointment with Henry Lo so after thanking the teacher for her encouragement I bade them all farewell saying that I would try to be back the next morning at 0630 hours for more. I then hurried back to the hotel.

On the way I just could not wait to share this morning’s sequence of events with Henry. His face seemed aglow when I told him. “Tomorrow morning I’ll come with you”, he said. 

Breakfast at the hotel was in the form of a buffet. The food was all Chinese apart from the OJ., the coffee, the bread and the eggs. With breakfast done Henry and I, together with his two Filipino students (Rene Kao from Iloilo and Igor Ducay of Manila) went shopping. Normally, for me, this would have been a totally boring concept, but we were in Quanzhou and although our tour started-off in a department store that could have been anywhere in the world we soon got off the main road and began to explore the characterful places that gives Quanzhou its own unique identity.

Our walk lasted a good hour or more as we ambled and wandered through what seemed like three separate flavours of the city. The first was what one might call the traditional Chinese quarter where we stopped to look at some Kung Fu weapons. There I bought a Bagua fengshui mirror whilst Rene was a much larger catch for the shop-owner as he went ahead and ordered no less than eight Lion Dance heads! Rene lives in Iloilo (on the island of Panay in the central Visayan region of the Philippines). There he heads his own Wuzuquan (Five Ancestor Fist) Kungfu school.

A few metres onwards and we all stopped at a tCm store where Rene bought some medicine and I bought some small glass medicine jars for my ‘tiedajiu’ (iron strike wine) that I make back in the UK. Such bottles I cannot find in the UK so now I was buying enough to keep me going for quite a long while.

For the next thirty minutes the mode of this town changed drastically. I felt as if I was now walking down ‘Seventh Avenue’ in Manhattan -  what the native New Yorkers endearingly call ‘Fash Ave’ (Fashion Avenue). Some of these stores were large whilst others were nothing more than what I can only describe as being tiny narrow passageways or corridors-size selling haunts. By and large these stores were manned by young girls often looking very gothic with their black spikey hair and their short, black and very tight trousers (leggings). They reminded me of those pictures (I am sure we have all seen them!) of the Japanese rockers in downtown Tokyo (the Shinjuku and Harajuku districts).

Turning another corner and we found ourselves in an Art District environment where shop after shop after shop were selling beautiful Chinese paintings along with jet black and very striking calligraphy. At one of these shops I bought some calligraphy paper for soon, back in in England, I would start to learn how to ‘write’ or draw’ traditional Chinese and Japanese characters.

Our tour would soon be coming to an end. Arriving back at the hotel for lunch, this afternoon we would be revisiting the Shaolin Temple, returning to the stadium for more  undistinguishable kungfu fights and then attending a meeting so as to receive details of this ‘2007 Wuzuquan Conference’ that would officially be starting  at 9am the following morning.

Of the eighty or so individuals attending this conference there appeared to be just five non-Orientals present: a man from Australia, John Graham from the USA., another man (a karateman) from the USA., his daughter (also an accomplished karateka) and myself (from England). Countries represented here this year included Malaysia (West Malaysia), Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, America, the Philippines, England and, of course, China. With a membership totalling thirty countries, a turn-out of nine (just short of 25%) was not so great but…their loss not ours and certainly not mine!  

The meeting closed at around 10pm. As it had just been agreed that I would be delivering an introductory  speech the following morning I returned to my room in order to write it and then present it (before bed!) to one of the US delegation members who would translate it into Chinese. Bed for me was at 11pm but by 3am I was up again and raring to go!

Breakfast, this morning, I took with John Graham. I had first learnt of this man twenty years ago (in 1988) when I interviewed Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong of Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia. My attempts to contact Mr. Graham had always failed but now, nineteen years later, we are sharing floor-space in a hotel breakfast lounge in Quanzhou, China!

At 9am this morning we were all meeting for the official opening of the ‘Quanzhou City Nanshaolin Wuzuquan Federation 2007’. This took the form of speeches from many of the local and senior Wuzu Federation members as well as speeches from each of the leaders of the participating and supportive countries. As I was the only UK national in attendance (in fact, I was the only European in attendance!)  this included me and so I had prepared a speech that was, in part, Chinese. First I read out my speech in English and then, as an unexpected twist, I gave the same speech to my audience in Chinese. Ben Kinzli Asuncion of the ‘USA Shaolin Wuzuquan Association’ is the man who had helped me that previous evening put my speech together and so it is with great thanks to him that my surprise had gone down extremely well. My bi-lingual speech had proved especially popular amongst the Quanzhou Wuzu masters and seniors which meant that I had gained a lot of ‘’face’.

The meeting was concluded with a presentation made to all the national leaders. This presentation was in the form of a large hardbound book that focused upon the little known Chinese martial art called Taizuquan (Emperor Fist or Tai Cho). This system is one of the five that makes upon the Wuzuquan style and a book such as this is the very first complete work on Taizu ever to have been written and published. Unfortunately it is in Chinese only, but the important thing is that at least it has been published. The translation can (and surely will) come later.       

It is rather sad that this international meeting had been overshadowed by a Wuzuquan tournament, but with CNN being a major sponsor (CNN is a US television network with a strong presence here in Quanzhou) it was important, if not essential, for this to receive a lot of focus. For this reason the opening ceremony included an audio-visual presentation that showed Henry Lo and a Quanzhou Shaolin Temple kungfu instructor competing in a Wushu tournament held in Beijing earlier in the year. This was shown to us so that we could all see the high standard of tournament competition that is the goal for this Federation.

Lunch followed this opening ceremony after which everyone was taken to the stadium for the final session of the Wuzu ‘bisai’ (competition). For me, the highlight of this was when Igor Ducay of Manila, Philippines won his fights and so earnt himself a place in the Beijing ‘bisai’ to be held several some months into the future.  Igor had not actually entered the competition until that very afternoon, and having won both his fights his life had really turned a corner. A major accomplishment for Igor and a tremendous gain of ‘face’ for his teacher, Henry Lo.

To bring this event to a climax there then followed a number of performances from various members of the Federation. This included me! Although I am not officially a member of this Federation I have been told that I am being looked upon and being treated by the senior Quanzhou Federation masters as such. During these performances I saw some fascinating displays by some accomplished individuals!

With this conference getting off to a very late start the Welcome Party was this very evening – at 8 o’clock: food followed by very loud cabaret and karaoke. Retiring early I took a shower and relaxed in my room. Then Henry called: ‘We are going to karaoke. You too. Meet us if fifteen minutes in the lobby.’ 

The last time Henry invited me to go somewhere was earlier this year (in June) when I was last in the Philippines. He had invited me to Quanzhou (to the event your are now reading about). Somehow, Henry makes his invitation’s sound more like very strong requests!

The karaoke club was not too far away – a thriving and throbbing environment that was oversubscribed (in a healthy way) by youngsters that flocked here in their droves. An hour later and the noise and passive smoking became too much so I was done. Back to the hotel where I could relax, breathe and have an early night.

The next morning I was awake at 5. Breakfast was at seven and once again I sat with John Graham as we spoke of mutual martial topics.

With another meeting scheduled for nine o’clock, this turned out to be another session of demonstrations. This proved both exciting and enlightening, and provided me with more leads for my ongoing research into various styles and the many variations on the ‘sanzhan’ (sanchin) theme.

After lunch Henry, Igor, Rene, and I went for a walkabout once again. This time I came back with bright red Kung Fu jacket that cost 100 Renminbei (£6) and a haircut – 7 RMB which equates to roughly 0.50 UK pounds (50 pence).

This evening’s meal doubled as the ‘2007 Wuzu Convention’ farewell party. It was quite some time before everyone had filtered in, and as they did so I was approached by the Hongkong White Crane Kung fu school who expressed a great interest in, and much appreciation of, the ‘Fujian Tiger’ form (Xia Shan Hu) I had performed earlier that day and the previous evening.  They were keen to understand the connection between the Tiger form they had seen me do, Uechiryu karate kata, and a mysterious kungfu master named Zhou  Zi He (Shu Shi Wa).

As part of this evening’s entertainment, each ‘head’ of each country attending this convention had to perform a party piece – anything from singing to karaoke, and from karaoke to kungfu. My contribution was my ‘Gongyao’ (Oriental Dance) meditation exercise (created by myself some time ago) which was not only received very well, but after having returned to my table I was then approached by the head of the Australian delegation who invited me to his table in order to talk to him and his friends about what I had just performed. At his table were Federation members not only from Australia but Singapore too, and they were all intrigued to hear more of ‘Gongyao’. 

 

      (A group photo of all those attending this very special event)

The farewell party drew to a close at 9pm. Most individuals were leaving Quanzhou in two days time (including myself) so the next day would be pretty-much ‘open’. That evening I had another early night – tomorrow, I could feel, would be rather busy!

After another early breakfast I set off by myself in the direction of the famous Quanzhou temple,  ‘Kai Yuan Si’. In previous years Chinese martial arts had been practiced there and may well still be to this day. I had visited this temple on my first visit to Quanzhou nineteen years earlier but I was very keen to ‘remind’ myself as to how it looks and how it feels. After a investigative walk to the temple via some interesting stores selling traditional Chinese temple-ware and general household fengshui regalia I finally reached ‘Kai Yuan’ temple.

I had forgotten just how huge this Quanzhou hallmark actually was (is) and so immersed myself in my explorations as I walked through the grounds and the various areas of the temple, itself.

By 12:30 I was back at the hotel. Time to freshen-up prior to embarking upon what was going to be a rather special, wholly unique, and most memorable afternoon…

On the second floor of the hotel there is a Chinese paintings gallery run by a young Chinese lady. Her English was good although she wanted to practice with me and have me help with her pronunciation. This I agreed to do and, in return, she would take me to a Qaunzhou landmark I had wanted to visit for many many years!  This afternoon we were going to visit the ‘Old Man Rock’ (‘Lao Jun Yen’) – an impressive statue of Laozi, the fabled founder of ‘Daojiao’ (Daoism). This was located at the foot of ‘Qingshan’ (Qing Mountain) which is a good thirty minutes drive away from the hotel by taxi.

I found Li Xia (for that is her name) attending to a customer amid her paintings. Minutes later, though, we were off – off to Qing Mountain. Unfortunately the taxi driver took us to the wrong location and so Miss Li and I spent a good hour and more walking up, around, and down the mountain looking for ‘the rock’ in the totally wrong direction!

But the walk was fun, the sights were amazing, and the views were incredible so neither of us were complaining.

As soon as we realized that we were wandering around in the totally wrong area we very soon got ourselves better oriented although it was a very long time before we finally arrived at where we wanted to be. Now and again I did wonder if we were ever going to get there as the mode of signposting in this area left an awful lot to be desired, but thinking back to “The Alchemist’ I did feel (actually, know) that we would finally reach our goal. Meanwhile, I enjoyed the journey for what it was and wherever it would take us because, for me, the arrival was not important. If destiny had other plans then that was fine with me!

Fate looked after us and saw to it that we were to reach the ‘Old Man Rock’ (as deep down inside I knew it would and we would). The rock was actually smaller than I had envisaged it to be (I had seen, in a book, a photo of this monument many years ago where it did look to be a rather sizeable construction) but I was not at all disappointed and neither was Li Xia. We spent a good half hour there just sitting and talking. Li Xia had brought a rather large grapefruit with her so we sat and shared that between us before she telephoned for a taxi.

We had arrived at the ‘Lao Jun Yan’ at four o’clock and now it was a little after five. By 5:30 we were back at the hotel and as Miss Li (Li Xiaojia) returned to her gallery I was due, right now, to meet with Henry, Igor, and Rene. We had been invited out for a meal (an ‘all you can eat’ English buffet at a five star hotel) by Catherine, the daughter of the ‘Quanzhou Wuzuquan Federation’ president. Thinking that I might be keeping them waiting I was, in fact, the first one to arrive at our rendezvous-point.

The meal was great – a wonderful way to spend our final evening in Quanzhou. I would have prefered Chinese food but for everyone else English food was a novelty so that was fair enough. Besides, I was more interested in the company and the dialogue more so than the food.

We were back at the hotel by ten to ten and as I went to see Li Xia I found her be very busy – speaking with some potential purchasers. I left her to it, arranging to see her at breakfast-time the following morning – there wee some lovely paintings I just had to buy! I returned to my room with a view to immersing myself in some serious packing. Instead, though, I spent a good hour or so in Henry’s room talking with him and Rene. It was 1am before I returned to my room and it was 2:30am before I finally zipped-up my travelling bag. I slept till 6am the rose, showered, called Henry, and went down for breakfast. Li Xia arrived at around 7:30 and so I immediately snapped-up those beautiful paintings.

I checked out at ‘Reception’ with some help from Henry. Li Xia was with him.

“This is our custom”, she said. “Do you know?”

“Yes, I do”, I said. It is “ ‘song ke’ – to send a guest.”  

”That’s right.” She was not really surprised that I knew about that!     

One of the Federation chiefs who had flagged me down a taxi told the taxi-driver that I was part of his organization and that that he was not to overcharge me!. And with that I was whizzed me off to Jinjiang Airport (Quanzhou Airport) where I arrived in plenty of time to catch my flight.

* *  *

My forty-five minute flight from Quanzhou would take me back to Shenzhen from where I would then take a bus across the border and back into Hong Kong. Once back at the airport I would then kill some time waiting for my flight.

At Chep Lap Kok I had a ten-hour wait for my London-bound flight. Out came my laptop once again and so  got down to some serious pc work. I was due to arrive in London (at Gatwick) at 0620 hours the following day. If all went well I would then back home by noon. Time to relax a little before going to teach my regular Wednesday evening ‘Sanshangong’ class.

I had cancelled most of my Thursday classes just in-case  I needed to recover. On the Friday I would be working my regular day job then teaching ‘Sanshangong’ in the evening. The Saturday I would be working and then again on the Sunday. I would be going to London direct from my work that Sunday evening as the very next morning I would be flying out to Manila, Philippines for another week of martial mayhem! But that, no doubt, will be another story!