zen mind, zen mind

So, for those of you who have bothered to check my blog, you might have noticed that my postings have been few, save for one short post about my monkey incident. For these last couple of weeks I had been involved in an intensive Taoist meditation retreat on Mt. Wudang in central China. My experience was an amazing one (although at times disappointing), I spent my time with about 28 or so of the most wonderful people one could hope to meet, and I learned much about myself and my practice. Over the next week or so I will try to recount as much of my experience, mostly for my own benefit but also for those who might take interest in this somewhat bizarre life that I am leading right now.

BEIJING

Alright, so a bit of a recap on my trip starting from flying into Beijing on Aug. 29. Based on my previous posts, I'm sure that some might come to conclusion that I sent myself into some sort of far eastern nightmare, and that I'm having a miserable time right now. In fact, I even had a few friends and family send me e-mails (which I really appreciated) expressing concern that my time here has so far been last then postive. Actually, my time in Beijing wasn't entirely all that bad, although it was certainly a trying experience. Here's a brief summation of my time there:

• Flew into Beijing, everything was going great until I attempted to find a hotel; this did not go well.
• After an awful night at a really crappy hotel, I spent my morning visting Tianenmen Sq. and strolling around Sun-Yatsen park.
• Got lost trying to find my way back to the really crappy hotel.
  
• Had an incredibly fortuitous run in with an artist and his wife in one of the hutongs south of Tianenmen Sq. They struck up a conversation with me in English, and soon asked if I would like to stay in one of their bedrooms above their teashop for a very reasonable 100 yuan/night (about $15). I immediately moved out of aforementioned really crappy hotel and situated myself in a very comfortable hutong bedroom complete with working internet and shower.
• Had an enormous lunch (my only meal for the first 48 hours in country). My new hosts tried to help me out by writing out the name of a local dish on a slip of paper and instructing me to find a busy restaurant and hand the note to a waitress. Unfortunately, what I thought they had given me was the name of the restaurant itself and I spent about 30 minutes walking around town, asking people if they knew where "spicy chicken peanut cucumber...thing" was.
  
• Woke up very early the next morning, took a stroll around the few remaining hutongs of Beijing, and found myself feeling much better about being in China. After breakfast I headed over to the Forbidden City, where I met a guy wearing a Natty Boh shirt who was visiting China with some friends from Baltimore, and got swindled by an "art student" in the imperial gardens.
• Had an amazing meal at a hotpot restaurant at Xidan "cultural" Sq. (basically an enormous underground shopping mall that goes down about four floors) and passed out soon afterwards back at my hutong suite (I had seriously jet lag, China is 13 hours ahead of EST).
• Left early the next morning to catch my flight to Xi'an. My host helped me carry my bags and made sure that the taxi driver knew where to take me. Thank God for the kindness of strangers.

So, perhaps this might not have been the most exciting trip to Beijing, but it did provide me with a very necessary learning experience. I will actually be returning there shortly with a couple of new friends from the meditation retreat, and this excursion should prove to be much more fruitful.