The Flowing Qi: Karaoke Funerals

The reason I call this post "Karaoke Funerals" is because I had to endure a 3 day funeral ceremony. The funeral took place next to our school and it kept me up all 3 nights. If you have never experienced a funeral in China, let me give you a quick synopsis. The funeral is supposed to be a joyous occasion for family and friends so they celebrate death. And this is done by having a party where everyone comes out to sing, drink, eat, play music and set off fireworks. Yes, this may sound fun, but it lasts all freakin day! The funeral started on Tuesday with band performing some traditional chinese music which led into Wednesday Karaoke. Well I guess it was karaoke because it was mostly amateur singers "blasting" their vocals all night long till about 4am. Then followed the fireworks at 6am and 7am, which sounded like they were in our hallways (remember, our school doesn't have any insulation so any noise from outside our walls echos within our hallways). I felt like I was on the beaches of Normandy Wednesday morning. I nearly jumped out of bed and thought the world was ending....seriously. Oh, it didn't stop. Wednesday night I decided to venture to Shiyan (about an hour away by taxi) with some of my friends from the academy hoping to escape the Karaoke Funeral. Well, to my surprise, when we returned from Shiyan around 9pm the party was still going on. And more karaoke but this time the volume was set at 100%. Even with my door closed I could here the singing in my room! And guess what happened at 1am, 4am and 6am? YES MORE FIREWORKS! I just want to thank those at the Karaoke Funeral for keeping me up all three days...I really appreciate it.

Onto something more exciting. Today I ventured up Mt. Wudang with Volkan (aka Voltran the German student). We decided early in the morning that we were going to the sacred mountains of Wudang and experience the birthplace of the Tao. Before we headed out, we agreed that we were going in full uniform and take shots in various postures on the mountain. We set out after breakfast and thought we could take a short cut through one of the trails along the mountain. What we didn't know was that when hiked the trail, we ended up inside the Mt. Wudang site. We had to go back the way we came (an hour detour) and head through town to reach the entrance of Mt. Wudang.

When we arrived at the entrance, we learned that we could either pay 180 yuan for a single entry pass or 190 yuan for an annual pass. Even though I wont be staying a year in Wudang, I opted for the annual pass because there is so much to see at Mt. Wudang. It would take 3 or 4 days to soak up all the beautiful temples and sights at Mt. Wudang. Volkan and I started our morning by going to Nan Yan, one of the most scenic parts of the mountains. We took a 30 minute bus ride to the entrance of Nan Yan and began our exploration there. After about 3 hours of hiking and taking photos (see link below) we stopped and ate lunch at one of the local restaurants. As we finished, the bus had arrived and we hopped on to our next destination. When the bus made its first stop down the mountain range, we elected to get off and explore a new area. Not sure what the site was called but we ended up by a beautiful stream and some wild monkeys (could have been the notorious Monkey Valley, but not sure). To give you an idea, the elevations of Mt. Wudang are about 1300 meters (or 4265 ft. ). The good thing about this day was when we arrived at the academy, there were no Karaoke Funerals!

Check out the photos from Mt. Wudang here!