For today morning I had arranged my first kungfu (功夫, Gōngfu) lesson in a park nearby. A colleague from the Netherlands had recommended me the teacher. I had wanted to take a lesson and try myself since my visit to Shaolin monastery, but now that I had a recommendation and that "Kungfu Panda" starts in the movies, it just seemed the right time to have a try. Agnes and her brother Jakob joined the lesson. We tried three different styles of Chinese kungfu art: Shaolin style (many kicks and moves, mainly concentrating on body flexibilty), another style mainly concentrating on self defense and for the 'cool down' we did Tai Qi, which is much more slowly, less demanding and smoother. I personnaly liked Shaolin style the most. By the way, did you know that China tried to establish modern Wushu/ modern Chinese martial art, which is yet another style, as a discipline in the Olympics? This attempt was not supported by the Olympic Committee, so now there is no such discipline.
In the afternoon after a good shower we visited Panjiayuan Antique market - the "mother of all Beijing antique markets". Well, guess what you rarely ever find there? Yeah, right, real antiques. For non-experts like me it's hard to distinguish between old and new, but the stroll around the market was quite nice and we found some unusual stalls selling old phones or suitcases, so it was worth the visit.
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