the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

2017 was a slower year, as we spent the first half of it in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang, a place with fuck all to see or do. After we moved back to Guilin things started to pick up again and I got some decent shots, the most coveted being a photo of a wild rhesus monkey. Still, I was too busy with studying swordsmanship from my Master to go on many epic trips this past year, so I hope that I still have a chance after I finish my studies in several months, before we leave China for good (at least living here).









These first several shots were still from the tail end 2016 - I failed to add them last year. As you can see, it was cold as fuck. The winter lasted over seven months and continued training in temperatures as low as -30 C..





It was so cold that I couldn't take off my gloves to take a photo for more than a minute, but it was worth the effort.





















It wasn't until June that things started turning green again outside!





After we finally escaped from Chinese Siberia the first thing I did was buy a motorbike and get back out there! And we made it just in time, as right after our epic trip the weather was uncooperative for over a month of the latter half of the summer...











The road to our usual swimming hole had been washed away during a massive flood shortly after we arrived and the pool under this waterfall became the replacement. Not too shabby, either..



































A portion of the autumn ended up being quite nice and besides these photos I was able to get a lot of footage for my final China video on swordsmanship. This will be the biggest one yet, with lots of scenery and fencing. Look for it in two or three months!

Anyways, I don't know when we are leaving China yet - probably in March or April - so this may be the end of this photo series - if the weather stays shitty, as it tends to do in winter here... I wish that I could say that I explored the country to my heart's content, but the fact is that I made a lot of sacrifices to get to where I ended up in my martial arts studies. Still, I travelled over 80.000km (not including my daily commutes), through some of the most remote and untouched areas of South China and had a lot of amazing experiences during my time here. I was only able to capture a small portion of what I saw, but I hope that you've enjoyed the ride.

Great pic's as usual. Yes the very north of China is quite a harsher place of China, landscape grey dry and extremely cold in winter. I myself have only been a couple of days in Harbin during the winter during the time I mostly stayed in a warm Hotel But been around quite a lot in the countryside of Liaoning. Guilin seem much more picturesque.

Wonderful pictures as always. Thank you very much for sharing.

really enjoyed these, thanks..

I was in Harbin in 1980 for a few days. One of the people I was with worked for the local railroad (which was vintage 1940's) . It was bitter cold, and there was little in the way of heat in the buildings. My bed was on a kang - a brick platform heated with dung and straw cakes. When we were outside and my friend spit (which he did every third sentence or so) it would freeze as soon as it hit the ground. I swore I would never live in a place so cold.

Then I did my residency in Buffalo New York.

Trick wrote:Great pic's as usual. Yes the very north of China is quite a harsher place of China, landscape grey dry and extremely cold in winter. I myself have only been a couple of days in Harbin during the winter during the time I mostly stayed in a warm Hotel But been around quite a lot in the countryside of Liaoning. Guilin seem much more picturesque.

Thanks, mate. Yes, the lack of snow for most of the winter was the worst part..

Guilin is nice when the weather is nice. When it's rainy, misty or smoggy it's just as ugly as other Chinese cities, though..

Bao wrote:Wonderful pictures as always. Thank you very much for sharing.

My pleasure.

kenneth fish wrote:I was in Harbin in 1980 for a few days. One of the people I was with worked for the local railroad (which was vintage 1940's) . It was bitter cold, and there was little in the way of heat in the buildings. My bed was on a kang - a brick platform heated with dung and straw cakes. When we were outside and my friend spit (which he did every third sentence or so) it would freeze as soon as it hit the ground. I swore I would never live in a place so cold.

Then I did my residency in Buffalo New York.

The spitting is still going on nowadays.. In winter the streets are literally covered in frozen slag and dog shit.. Disgusting.

I never saw a Kang, but they still use them in countryside houses.

I another thread you mentioned that you were in Guiyang in the 1980s. I'm so jealous! I was there in 2007 and it was alright, but I've travelled through remote parts of the province and it was amazing. I can imagine that Guiyang must have been more like that in those days. I've seen photos of Guilin from the 1930s and it makes you want to cry, how much was lost.

Tom wrote:Great photos, Maarten. Thanks as always for sharing them with the forum. Fujian had been at the top of the list for my next China visit, but Guilin seems very appealing as well.

Ken, you need to share your pictures of Buffalo from your time there . . . well, actually, no you don't.

Come to Guilin from mid-May to the end of July for the best weather. Let me know if you will be coming as a non-tourist and I can give you suggestions about where to go.

Fantastic photos! Thanks for sharing with us. I can feel you'll miss China, and we will miss the photos and stories.

Thanks, mate. There are definitely things that I'll miss, for sure.. But I intend to focus my camera elsewhere in future - find a new muse..