It’s wonderful looking back at those memories of me, a 16 year old “man” arrive in such a huge country by myself. as i got out at Linyi airport, Dawei was already waiting for me… we spend 2 hours on car driving to the place which i would call “home” for the next 2 months. As i got out of the car it was already pitch black and you basically could not see a thing.

Dawei showed me around the school, making me feel welcome, but the feeling of being so far away from anyone that i know, struck me quite bad, but i did not care to much as i knew it would be an amazing experience.the next the day i woke up, and i found myself in the middle of this amazing and exciting mountainous landscape, which i thought of being ideal to train traditional Kung-fu.

The next couple of minutes, master presented himself as well as Han Shifu, and of course all the other pupils which were already there. From that day on I considered myself as part of the tashan academy family. throughout the 2 months i was faced by difficult challenges like mountain climbing ,training on poles, shoalin form training and physical training. but as the days went by the training became better as i was starting to get used to the climate (very hot) and to the different type of training.Both of the Shifu Made the training in these two months very exciting and hard, but i knew that i would get a promising result. But a thing you have to keep in mind is, its not all about training…

i got to know the chinese language a bit better, i learned traditional chienes medicine methods and put them into practice, and learned more about the fascinating theory behind the real kung-fu. we trained about 6-8 hours a day, were we changed the style of kung fu we were practicing. At the end of my trip i found myself knowing tai chi, qigong, shaolin kung fu, meihuaquan kung fu, wing chun, sanda… but my favourite types of kung fu will always be shoalin, sanda and choy lee fut kungfu.

I would like to advise the new students, that the food in china will be very different from the food in eastern countries… the food was very tasteful and delicious, especially the homemade dunplings. but,to be honest, i did not pay to get amazing food, i went there to train as much as possible, and i achieved my goal by learning 8 forms of different styles, learned how to fight at mid-range with sand, and learned how to fight at close range with wing chun.

All together i thought my trip was amazing as i thought of being in another world. i advise for every person to do this experience for themselves, it does not matter if you know or do not know any type of kung fu, but what counts is that you go prepared and with the right mentality. I hope for you all that you will find what you look for in traditional kung fu, and for me tashan school is the best place to start a martial art journey like mine.

I will come back next year with my father in the summer holiday. At that time I will see my shifus and old friends again.