We are in Hong Kong at the Hard Rock Cafe using their internet connection and to grab a late night snack. There is a good little band playing some old music from the 70's and newer.

The flight (approx. 14 hours San Francisco to Hong Kong) was long but not bad except for the movies. I saw a bit of the movie Wild Hogs.

The weather is warm - around 90 today. Tomorrow the students will take either a Hong Kong City tour or a Kowloon New Territories tour followed by shopping, a visit to Kowloon Park and looking up some veggie restaurants.

Our old friend Mr. Sun Bing and his son Sonny are once again with us as guides. Mr. Peng and Mr. Liu will join us in Hangzhou. Peng and Liu told Bing that anytime we are in China, they have to join us as guides! This marks the 20 year anniversary that Peng and Bing have been our Shao-Lin Guides!

Hope to send more updates soon... Have lots of fun in classes...

Best wishes, Elder Master Sharon

We had a great day yesterday. In the early morning many students went to Kowloon Park to do some T'ai Chi and Chi Kung. Students new to Hong Kong did a tour of the harbour, Stanley Market, Victoria Peak etc. Others went to the New Territories to visit a working Taoist Temple. We also went to a flower market where the smell and the colors were wonderful! Also visited a jade market, the night market, etc... As Mr. Peng would say, "no more shopping!"

We also went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art which had some beautiful ceramic figures of the 8 Immortals, Zhong Kwei the ghostbuster, and Ta Mo, to name a few.

In the evening we watched the laser light show at the harbour. We also had a fantastic meal at an Indian restaurant named Woodlands.

Must close as there is a plane to catch to Hangzhou and the beautiful West Lake. We will be visiting the tomb of Yueh Fei there in Hangzhou around lunch time. We saw a ceramic figure of him with his mother putting the tattoo on his back in the museum. But the figure showed him as an adult and not as the child he was said to have been at the time!

Must go ... The adventure continues!

Elder Master Sharon

The trip has been fantastic and we still have a week to go... Hangzhou was beautiful as always with the West Lake, the tomb of General Yueh Fei, the Six Harmonies Pagoda, Tiger Spring and the list goes on...

Shandong has been so wonderful too. We have visited all of the sights of the Outlaws of the Masrh. Large statues of Li Kwei, Wu Song and the Tiger, the Temple Hall of 108 Heros - all lifesize, the inn were Wu Song had too much to drink and the rock were he fought with the Tiger, and again so much more that there is not enough time to list it all now!

Our good friends, Master Liu Liehong - the "bad guy" eagle claw master from many Chinese kung fu movies and Master Sun Jiang Ping - now a police trainer for Chin Na - traveled with us. Both were very busy, Master Liu, filming a TV series in Beijing and Master Sun training police in Hunan Province. For 20 years now they have made time to visit and travel with us when we are in China. We had a wonderful visit and a time to reflect how we met 20 years ago, June 1987 and how our friendship has continued even with such a distance between us!

We also visited a friend from Denver, Colorado who was born in China of missionary parents and lived there until age 13. She is now 90 years old and returned to China 8 years ago to end out her life helping the people and country that she remembers from her childhood. While as a child in China she lived through 3 years of famine as well as several warlords. She came to our Shao-Lin performance with the local martial artists and then we visited her village and her home.

The Shao-Lin performance with the local schools was great! The students performed in the blazing sun on the hottest day. Everyone had a wonderful performance. There were a couple of minor injuries. One drew some blood and the bandage on the head which was tied on because of the heat and sweat produced, looked like a major war wound. He had a lot of local people want to have their picture taken with the "wounded hero."

The testing students did a great job too, especially in the heat and on the slippery and uneven stone surface of the temple courtyard.

Our reception by the local people has been so warm. There have been large banners at the hotel with all of the staff lined up to welcome us and to say goodbye. Banners have been at some of the sights such as where Wu Song met the Tiger. There have been TV interviews and there are 2 photos of some of our Shao-Lin in todays local newspaper.

I must close as there are others wanting to use the 1 available computer. Our best to everyone. We will come back with lots of stories and photos...

Zai Jian,

Elder Master Sharon

Before we left Shantung Province we had some unexpected fun. At the 1000 Buddha Temple there is an alpine slide and was the best ever! The slide flume is metal, made by a company in Germany and like a good German sportscar - it is very fast. Elder Master David and I rode our sleds 3 times in a row without getting off! (You stay on the sled and a tow rope takes you back to the top.) And, of course the Buddha Cave with the paintings and the stone statues were great too. The is a large Sleeping Buddha surrounded by candles and flowers. There also is a path with life size stone carvings of each of the 18 Lo Han. At the top of the mountain there is a Temple dedicated to Lao Tzu.

Right now we are at the West Sea Hotel on Yellow Mountain. Even though it has been raining and flooding in China we had managed to miss most of it, especially while we were visiting the historic sites. We did have to take a detour in Shantung because the floating bridge that we were to take to cross the Yellow River got washed away. We went on one rural road that was flooded in places and the Shao-Lin bus in front of us started sliding toward a tree but fortunately the driver got control and a crash was avoided. Trees along the roads were uprooted due to the wind and water! Our plane flight into Shantung Province was also fun due to the weather. We were on final approach and the airplanes wheels were just off of the runway when the aircraft pulled up in a steep climb. From there the craft veered left a bit and then right. After about an hour we finally landed. We were the last aircraft to land at the airport before flights we re canceled due to the weather!

Our view from the top of Yellow Mountain will probably not improve. There is a mist and floating fog that covers the mountain. The full size bonsai trees stand like elegant old men in a misty, magical forest. There are streams, waterfalls and pools of water along the winding paths. Tomorrow we will head down the mountain to see the 1000 Foot Waterfall, the ancient city and a museum. In the evening we will fly to Shanghai.

Since we have some time in Shanghai, some students who have not been to the city of Suzhou, which is a couple of hours away, will also go there for a ride along the Grand Canal. Both Hangzhou, which we visited at the beginning of our trip, and Suzhou were visited by Marco Polo. He was so impressed by the beauty of the West Lake in Hangzhou that he called it "Heaven on Earth". Because of the beauty of the city on the Grand Canal, Marco Polo called Suzhou the "Venice of the East." Students will also get to visit the famous and unique gardens of Suzhou.

While in Shanghai there will be more sights to see and much shopping before we head back home. The students have already purchased a lot of scrolls, chops and framed paintings! It will be fun to see what everyone buys now.

Best wishes to all. I look forward to seeing the Denver and Boulder Students bright and early Saturday morning for Chue Chien! The fun will continue back home...

Sincerely,

Elder Master Sharon