I very much enjoyed staying at Chenjiagou and would love to go back to stay for a week or two, even without doing tai chi.
Firstly it was amazingly quiet as there are few cars and most people walked or used electric scooters which are almost silent. So most of the time the loudest noise is birdsong! So relaxing! You don't realize how much stress noise adds to your life until you go somewhere really quiet and feel that stress drop away.
And there was a lot of interesting things to see
Traditional Farmhouses
The streets of the village are generally lineed with tall walls and the tall red gates of the farmhouses. The gates typically have red ceramic tiles and paper messages, pasted-on and ceramic tiled landscapes above the door. This photo above shows a typical street, with some classmates from school walking to a tai-chi demonstration.
The farmhouses almost all have the same plan, with the gateways opening to a L-shaped entrance area, typically decorated with another, much larger ceramic-tile chinese-landscape scene.
This is a typical example. I saw a wide variety of ceramic landscapes and a couple with pictures of Chairman Mao.
The typical farmhouse design is to have an entry-way made of out-buildings with a flat roof, opening onto a court-yard and the main house behind.
This is the entrance to June's house.
This is the courtyard, with the kitchen behind June and the main living area behind that.
And a view of the court-yard, looking back towards the entranceway.
June's dog Pichu usually waits for her on the top of the flat roof as he guards the property. He is always so happy to see June come home.
June and Pichu on the flat roof.
This is a much older traditional house where Grandmaster's mother (foreground) used to live. The roof only developed a hole in the last couple of years
And another very old house.
This is a view of of part of Chenjiagou 'Main Street' that had not yet been 'upgraded'.
Upgraded Streets
Here is another part of 'Main Street' in the process of being upgraded. Main Street is being turned from a wide main-road artery for traffic into a narrower paved mainly-pedestrian street for tourists to stroll-down, bordered by new trees and new grassed areas.
Here we can see the paving for a driveway being put in with 'ye olde' paving-stones
And new turf being laid by the road-side.
The facades of all the buildings along the street are being re-plastered in 'traditional' style and given 'traditional' wooden doors. Apparently in order to be more appealing to visiting tourists.
This is June outside her famous tea-shop, which has been newly-plastered. Unfortunately the new wooden doors were put-in with insufficient clearance to open the old doors behind, so she initially couldn't get into her shop.
The photo below shows an area where the refurbishment is almost completed.
And a fully completed area. That looks much better doesn't it? Kind-of Ming-dynasty Disney
Or like a film-set for an old martial-arts movie. Which is presumably what the authorities expect the tourists will want to see when they visit the birth-place of tai-chi.
The border between the old and new parts of town is now marked by a new arch-way .
Chenjiagou 'New Town'
The new part of town on the north side has a huge new development of large 3-story red buildings in 'traditional' style, and a new 4-star hotel. I quite like these. Of course they are out-of-scale compared with the rest of the village but they could have been a lot worse.
These will eventually be apartments and shops but are currently almost empty except for the towns only supermarket. So it is a very very quiet area, especially at night where the only light is from the supermarket.
The supermarket is a great place - you can pick-up a sword or halberd when you buy your bananas.
It also sells 'A-kiss soda'. Much to my regret, I neglected to buy a box to give to my bosses at work!
Behind the big red buildings is a large new stadium for holding tai-chi competitions. I think the vision is that they can now old regular competitions to attract thousands of tai-chi fans to the village.
Before the stadium was built, the national Chen-style tai-chi championships were held in a nearby town.
And behind the tai-chi stadium is a park with a truly-enormous ying-yang sign which has room for thousands of visiting tourists or competitors to perform tai-chi together.
Nightlife
On Saturday night the far side of the ying-yang sign doubles as the farmer's night-club. The bring a generator for lights and a boom-box, and dance to traditional Chinese music.
The dance moves are a bit like a restrained combination of ball-room, rock & roll and salsa. It looks like a lot of fun.
There are few other nighttime attractions. The town gets very dark at night as there are no street-lights. Here is the towns other shop.
There is a BBQ restaurant come food-stall near the old hotel
And one of the two other restaurants,
Grilled fish - looks delicious.
This is a local speciality, 'big plate spicy chicken', made with a whole chicken from head to feet including innards.
Temples
June took me to this temple which is on the opposite side of the big canal. It is dedicated to martial-arts god Sun Wu Kong, the monkey king (
link).
Inside are five large and very impressively carved wooden statues. The god flanked by four fearsome warriors holding halberds. Next to the statues are sofas and couches so the villagers can relax, chat and nap in the presence of the gods.
I didn't take a photo of the amazing statues as the old villagers inside didn't want any photos taken. And because it is bad-luck to offend the gods, especially gods of martial-arts. But this photo from the much less impressive buddhist side-chapel gives an idea of the set-up.
The main temple in town is just across the field from our school and is much more impressive. It is dedicated to both buddhist and taoist deities.
The entrance way is flanked by statues of four warriors. One of the important movements in Chen tai-chi is 'Jin Gang Dao Dui' which is usually translated as 'Buddhist warrior attendant pounds mortar'. According to Mark Chen's book Jin Gang refers to the four Diamond Kings, the guardian deities whose images flank the entrances to buddhist temples. So it was good to see them here.
They four deities all have names and special powers. The one on the right above is Senrigan who can see for one thousand miles.
The temple is extensive and in the process of being refurbished and enlarged. Around the perimeter are small temples with statues of different gods and goddesses. In the middle is the largest temple with statues of the male gods. A few villagers were napping there.
And in the house behind is the temple for the gods' wives.
The temples are gorgeously decorated with paintings and statues.
I took the risk of photographing the gods' wives and their attendants.
And the taoist deity in one of the side-temples.
Next door to the main temple area is a brand-new extension with yet more temples and statues. Apparently this is funded by government money so I assume it is part of the plan to provide tourist attractions.
Yang LuchanTaiji Learning Place
One of the tourist attractions is the "Yang LuchanTaiji Learning Place". For many generations Chen tai-chi was a closely-guarded family secret.
Yang Luchan was the first person outside the Chen family to be taught tai-chi and he subsequently popularized it by teaching his version of it (the 'Yang style') in Beijing and elsewhere and he became known as "Yang the invincible" (
wiki link).
According to the plaque: "The tai-chi learning place was originally the former residence of Imperial Academy Editorial Assistant Chen Dehu in the Qing Dynasty. Yang Luchan worked as a handyman at Chen Dehu's home. Later he learnt Tai Chi from master Chen Changing, and eventually became creator of the Yang style"
"One night, he was awakened by the sounds of "Hen" (哼) and "Ha" (哈) in the distance. He got up and traced the sound to an old building. Peeking through the broken wall, he saw his master Chen, Chang-xing teaching the techniques of grasp, control, and emitting jin in coordination with the sounds "Hen" and "Ha." He was amazed by the techniques and from that time on, unknown to master Chen, he continued to watch this secret practice session every night. He would then return to his room to ponder and study. Because of this, his martial ability advanced rapidly. One day, Chen ordered him to spar with the other disciples. To his surprise, none of the other students could defeat him. Chen realized that Yang had great potential and after that taught him the secrets sincerely" (
wiki link)
The place where Yang hid on the wall is marked by a black plaque (middle-right behind the bushes)
The former villa is undergoing an extensive refurbishment, with construction of a large new building next to the old one.
I wonder what they are planning? Perhaps the 'Yang Luchan Experience, dark-ride and visitor center'.
I expect that Chenjiagou will be quite different next time I visit, and I'm glad I got to see the old village before it was done-up.
