Monday – Talking with Tagou People, Taoist Temple and Confucian Academy

Really, really sore today. Moving legs difficult. Morning workout
again at 5:30. This time, rainy as we set out, and gradually more and
more as the morning progressed, such that by 7:00, we had to walk
instead of run back – too slippery. Listened to the president talk,
garnered some valuable info for my report about the influences of
Buddhism and Daoism on wushu, and then talked to one of the more
advanced students. Even if I didn't understand everything, highly
interesting. What he taught me about the Buddhism&Taoism/Wushu
connection expanded on what I knew, and he told me plenty I didn't
know as well. Also told me about life at Tagou – running every
morning, then the rest of the day alternates between studying
(broad-based stuff like math) and gongfu for several hours a stretch
each. Also told me that most of the people here go on to do or want
to go on to do "movies, competitions, demonstrations, etc." though
later one of the Chinese teachers on the trip told me a lot end up
working as security guards due to this thing called "supply and
demand" - there are a large number of students at this school,
numbering in the thousands, and a lot are sent here by their parents
for various reasons against their other inclinations (that said, some
genuinely enjoy the wushu lifestyle).
Bought a wushu stick, then took it with me to lunch. While at lunch,
another foreigner came up to us and mentioned how martial arts weapons
are treated more seriously in China – he once drew a sword to show an
official who was interested in it in an airport, and "everybody hit
the floor". He also semi-jokingly offered coffee to those who would
speak English, figuring one of us would be enough of a caffeine addict
to break the language pledge, but he underestimated the true caffeine
addict among us – namely, me – who brought his own coffee. In both
Beijing and here (and all across China), the coffee is either
ridiculously sweet or, more often, nonexistent. I've taken to
drinking black instant coffee (available at select store locations),
or just eating the crystals if I don't have hot water readily
available. Slept, then went to a Taoist temple. Architecture much
the same as the Ming Tombs area, to my view (though a person more
educated in this department could probably tell you otherwise).
Afterwards, went to some sort of Confucian school that was preserved,
which was a bit different architecturally. For dinner, the bus driver
took us to a hotpot place, which was, like other hotpot places,
delicious, though like all other Chinese food I've tasted, severely
lacking in the spiciness department where it is supposed to be a
specialty (double the amount of hot sauce they give you to choose how
much to put in the pot was still not enough). Again with the cultural
differences, the attendants kept trying to put large amount of beef
into my pot (with success one time), which I would find very rude were
I not in China, especially given that they kept doing it after I asked
them to stop (I had to ask several times, which is the custom here to
my knowledge). Especially tasty were the noodles which the attendant
pulled from slabs of dough at the table itself.