The Journey to Wudang 4

The whole autumn here in Guangzhou (that is warm like a Swedish summer) I have been telling everybody that it is never going to be cold here. They complain about the winter that have 5' C in the nights and I try to explain about Sweden where we sometimes go towards -30' C in the mid winter nights. Now I'm sitting here freezing my ass off anyway. Well, I should have known better. I have spent a winter in Wudang so I know what the Chinese winters are about. I decided to share it whith you here.

My experience from Wudang was that during the days there was a nice temperature of 10-15'C but then during nights it fell down to -5'C. I remembered ending the training when the sun was down and the warm sweat turned to ice cold pain on my body. I went in to shower only to find out that the warm water was gone.. again. After showering in cold water I stepped out in my room.. AND HERE IS A DIFFERENCE.. You see, due to knowledge about how to build warm houses in Sweden we have protected our self from the cold the last 50 years. Our daily life inside our buildings is warm and cozy. Here it is not! My room in Wudang was big and nice with white concrete walls. These nice walls turned out to be nothing but messengers carrying a message of winter and ice. The stone floor was like a skating rink and the feeling trying to dry up after cold shower in a room that now was -5' to 2'C was far from pleasant.

The winter in Shanghai was even worse. Somehow there was one week with a wind from the sea or perhaps north Russia (or hell) that just blew straight inside your soul. I thought I would die. So that is partly why I decided to go down south this year. So finally in Guangzhou the whole autumn have been nice and warm witch have been really good form my body and the training. Then right when it started to get cold it turned back to nice weather for a week, and then I went to Thailand and Hong Kong. The first days after the vacation when I arrived here with my kungfu-brother Simon he explained how lucky I was to live down here. Because he lives next to the mountain this winter and there it is snow right now. The first two days here was so good that I totally regretted buying a nice winter jacket for 600RMB. After a few days it all turned to the worse though. Rain came and also the cold. Right now I'm reminded of the wind in Shanghai that was out to kill me. They say it is getting better this weekend so I'm hoping for that to be true.

Right now my apartment have a temperature around 5-10'C, and that is in my bed.. under three blankets! Somehow my warm water doesn't heat up more than half ways so I never really feel warm. This will get to you after a while. Outside it is far warmer than Sweden but the problem is inside. Once again I live with nice, high, and white concrete walls and a stone floor. Every time I put my feet's on the floor I feel the cold traveling up through my heel bone towards the center of my body. In an instant I'm freezing all over. The Chinese people are hardcore to handle this. They aren't even complaining.

This will (soon) be a good year!!