After 3 days in the mountains, we made our way back down to the reality of urban China to get on the next train. We were assured that advanced reservations were not needed to get a sleeper seat for the 10-hr journey to our next destination. WRONG!!! We got to the scrubby little train station in Wudang Town only to find that the train to Beijing (we would be getting off somewhere on the way) had no sleeper seats. Well... for a 10-hr ride, soft seats, in an air-conditioned car could not be so bad. WRONG AGAIN!!!
True, the seats were comfy (if not a bit cramped for our long western legs), and there was AC (thank god!!)... but apparently there does not seems to be any restriction on how many tickets they sell for the train. They sell standing room only tickets... and the standing room only passengers are like leeches, clinging to anything that remotely resembles an empty seat, or patch of seat.
Getting on the train involved the usual mad rush and shoving at the door to get on. But at this point, we are well practiced in this art, and are also much bigger so have a definite advantage. We get on the train only to find the aisle jammed with people and no overhead space.. and surprise, there are people in our seats. It took a good half hour to convince the squatters that we would not be intimidated by the language barrier and simply go away. So finally we got our seats vacated after much shoulder tapping and arguing. Of course, the conducters don't even venture into this car... as they know its futile! But at last, we got our seats - and we did not leave them for 10 hours!! If we did, a standing room only passenger would have snagged it straight away.
It was really amazing - we were lucky to be in a 4-seat, rather than 6 seat section. The 6 seat sections had as many as 10 passengers squished into them. Four squeezed into each side, one squatting on the floor and one leaning on the table... often with one more leaning at the end of each row of seats. And you could just feel all eyes watching for even a sliver of seat to appear where we were sitting... Hence, we did not move from our seats for the duration for fear of losing our seats.
Needless to say, we were hot, sweaty, achy and rather tired when the train rolled in at 3AM, so rather than our usual budget accomodations, we treated ourselves to a night and day of air conditioned luxury and excellent movie watching before we moved on to our final destination for this leg of the trip - Shaolin.
Yes.. we were headed to the birthplace of Kung Fu, home of the Shaolin monks for a day of hard core Kung Fu training. To tell the truth.. we only made it through half a day, this was no joke!!
The area known as Shaolin has about 10 - 15 different Kung Fu schools, as well as the main temple where the monks train. There were literally thousands of kids training their tails off, presumably this is summer camp season. They were amazing to watch. Any of those kids, even the tiniest ones, who couldn't have been more than 5, could easily have taken us out!
One of the main schools, the most 'important' school, Wushu Tangou, offers daily classes as well as longer term classes for foreigners. And they are intense. The 3 hours we spent learning our King Fu baby steps were harder than any set of stairs we climbed. We were sore for days after!!
As well as trying our hand at Kung Fu, we were able to catch some amazing displays of talent on the part of the students when we stumbled upon what appeared to be an end of session competetition where groups of students performed various acts of Kung Fu and acrobatics in front of judges. As well saw the Shaolin Boxers training. This seemed to be a sort of kick-boxing, and these guys were vicious and huge!! In fact, these demonstrations were far more impressive that the 'official' Shaolin show that we saw a few days later in a Shanghai theatre.
This is definitley the place to come if one is interested in martial arts and wants to do some serious Kung Fu training.
