Machinery Hotel Shandong Yantai

... it wasn't any more luxurious) was in a completely different part of the hotel, and another floor, yet it also had damp problems. I kept the window open all night to ameliorate the stench, and moved to another hotel early the next morning. <br><br>Qingdao is a pretty seaside town popular with both Chinese and foreign tourists. I think this makes me averse to it. There are surges of half-dead tourists everywhere, and seemingly a rather weary response from much of ...

... answer yet somehow they have come to the conclusion that their belief, that their God is The God. <br><br>It all confuses me.<br>Religion, it really is and always has been one huge confused mess.<br><br>But, then again, the above is through my eyes and I know most of the worlds population don't have a problem with religion at all. Maybe they are the lucky ones who can simply concentrate on one ...

... and Lesser Panda (&#23567;&#29066;&#29483; xiao xiong mao). Now on with business: Beijing was cool and all and I'm glad I saw it, and more glad I'll be going back when it's awesomer and a huge deal (Olympics), but Yantai is so much better in every way. It's pretty big but it's right on the water, the sky is actually blue (no smog), I don't need lights on in my room in the daytime, I have a single dorm room (not hotel ...

... out. Turns out the song was playing real loud on some Chinese guy's cell phone, he was trance-dancing right there in middle of the mall! I said, "Say man, what's the name of that sweet song?" That boy didn't even stop dancing, he just said,"Bing He Shi Dai". Needless to say, now I jam to it on my iPod. For the best China travel information and tips on the Internet check out: www.askreddragon.com

... learning a bit of Chinese, snacking and drinking tea - taking it easy until training starts again tomorrow! Our group has a week until we're to be tested on the first proper fist form that we've been taught so I imagine this week will be a tough one. That's about all there is to report but will hopefully start updating sometime this week

... punches well, not much else. The different kicks and steps are also annoying to get into but as with punches they can be figured out and used. We trained regular sanda 2/3 times a week, takedowns once and sparring once (somebody always got hurt in sparring though, one guy in my class accidentally bit the head of the other guy during wrestling leaving him in need of a stitch, to be fair that was not actually part of the sparring but it is worth ...

All the masters in the academy trained in the Shaolin temple roughly from when they were 10 till 20. Every single one of them has their own style, amazing ability and approach to teaching what they know. There is no real way to summarise them as a whole because of how different they all are so I think it's worth giving little profiles of each. I was lucky enough to have Du Shifu as my main Shaolin master. He's the oldest shaolin master at around 28 (no ...

... it is impossible to forget that I am in China. The sounds that float through the open window are as strong as the smells from the public toilets. First of all, I woke up to a less than cheery rendition of taps being played from the bell tower (well.. is it ever cheery?). Considering the pain in my gut, I felt like they were playing it exclusively for me. After that, the bell tower played the recorded tune that plays every hour, on the hour, from 6am to 10pm. This tune has quickly gotten ...

... classes with them difficult as they do not wear signs on their forehead. Yesterday I had a go at two of them only to be told that 'they dont learn English' by the teacher, which would be fine if they didn't disrupt my classes by giggling and saying rude things in Chinese. Thankfully the language barrier comes in handy in these moments and I get to call them whatever I want in the most sarcastic of tones and they will still nod, smile, and say 'yes miss mhairi' when they figure ...

... nice... Exciting news though, they are apparently trying to stamp this habit out in time for the Olympics. In Beijing you can now get fined for spitting on the street, but sadly this ruling is fairly limited and spitting is still a very pervasive Chinese habit :( On a nicer note though I've just had a very fun yoga lesson, where my teacher was wrapping limbs around other limbs in ways that noone should wrap limbs. I had a nice chat with my taxi driver on the ...