Mao's
Villa
In Wuhan we discovered a few things that I hadn't had chance to
discover before. Along with the interesting colonial architecture of
Hankou (you'll have to wait for photos of that I'm afraid) there was the very
bizarrely low-key nature of Mao's Villa.
Mao came to Wuhan many times and would stay short periods of up
to five months.
The authorities don't seem to know what to do with this museum
piece of slightly kitsch early 70s decor. Finding the place was challenge
enough. There was one very bored lady on the desk and then we got free
reign of his home. As you can see from the photos we made full use of this
freedom - something I'm sure Mao would have disapproved of a lot! There
are some video images that go even further - but unfortunately I can't get them
onto the website at the moment. I'll let you know when I get that bit
sorted.
Tae Kwon Do
And
finally, what you've all been waiting for. Pictures of me practicing my
Tae Kwon Do. At the beginning of the holiday (before Ed arrived) American
Jon and I enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do school and kept going for a full fortnight
before Ed's arrival in Beijing pulled me away.
I'm sure I remember lots of sage advice from gym instructors in
the UK about not pushing yourself too far, not bouncing and not straining
yourself. I had particularly strong recollections of this advice whilst
the instructor was bouncing up and down on my outstretched legs as he tried to
get them to go flatter, or as he pushed me hard downwards as I was trying to
approximate the splits.
To give him his due though, it certainly worked and I was a lot
more supple by the end of the fortnight. A facet I quickly lost in the
weeks afterwards. I never picked up much skill at the sport. But I
got to have some funky photos of me taken. This is another place where the
videos show more. Still, whilst we are waiting for the miracles of modern
technology to catch up with my web page designing skills here are the photos!
You might not be able to quite tell from these photos the boyish
grin that the instructor sported most of the time. It might have been
saying "Look at these poor western fools" But I think it was
saying "I have just bounced up and down on the outstretched legs of these
poor western fools. They won't walk for a week."
Finally, just to prove that I wasn't the only one getting into the
spirit of it, here are photographic records of Jon's efforts...
