End of the kunyu shan dynasty

In a few days time I will be leaving Kunyu Shan martial arts academy. Its been hard work here at times but lots of fun. The past week has been quite busy. Firstly there was a grading which meant getting up on a stage on my own in front of the whole academy with the masters sitting at the front. I ran through the moves that I had learned which was a complex series of punches, kicks, sweeps etc. It was quite a scary moment but i did well enough to pass without my shorts splitting or any other disasters.




Friday was sparring day and against all my instincts and common sense I decided to go for it. Again the whole academy watches, standing around the boxing ring shouting encouragement and advice. The fight is two 3 minute rounds with a short break in between. It went reasonably well, I wasn't bleeding at the end and I was conscious so an overall success. My opponent, Andrea, thought it went well too... No, he's not a woman, just Italian.



That night we went out to a club in Yantai which was great fun and a huge contrast to life here at the academy. The rest of the weekend was spent laying by the lake in the sun and going for the occasional swim. There are snakes that live in the lake and can be seen swimming about (6 feet + !!), but the Chinese guy we asked said they weren't poisonous and very tasty.



When I leave here I'm travelling solo again and getting the train to Xi-an for a few days. Then travelling through China to Hong Kong and on to the South East Asian part of my trip. I should get to Vietnam by the last day in June.