This morning’s early wake up was in readiness for a 7am kung fu class in Yangshuo park.

It was an opportunity to focus our body and mind and wow what an incredible experience.

Five members of the tour group, Michelle, Laura, Jamie, Helen and I joined Master Yang for a 90min introduction to the martial arts world.

Ever since watching the cartoon Hong Kong Fuey as children of the 1970’s we’ve wanted to have a try at Kung Fu.

In China, kung fu refers to any study, learning, or practice that requires patience, energy, and time to complete.

In its original meaning, kung fu can refer to any discipline or skill achieved through hard work and practice, not necessarily martial arts. By way of example, the discipline of tea making is called the gongfu tea ceremony.

Each form of kung fu has its own principles and techniques, but is best known for its trickery and quickness.

As we soon learned from our Master, at its heart is the art of balance and the interrelationship of yin and yang. Once these are understood and slowly perfected only then are you able to put kung fu into practice. From our brief lesson we soon learnt that it requires the meeting of the mind and body.

There are 10 different positions that are then duplicated on either side of the body involving stances that are based around animals. These being the water buffalo, snake, horse, chicken, eagle and dragon. The feet follow these animals and the arms in yin and yang.

The yin and yang concept originates in Chinese philosophy, describing an opposite but interconnected, self-perpetuating cycle. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary and at the same time opposing forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts and the parts are important for cohesion of the whole.

Once we’d appreciated these concepts the moves started to come together, although the Master explained that it may take years to truly develop and evolve!!!

After our workout, we said our goodbyes to the Master and went to watch other groups in the park who like us were working out, doing martial arts, keep fit and dance.

Walking back to the hotel, we went via the local meat & veg market to investigate the foods on offer. There were so many diverse vegetables and every part of a cow, duck, lamb, dog and cat on offer!

After our exercise we dropped into a local coffee shop for a short break, before talking a walk around one of the older villages and surrounding countryside.

Early in the afternoon we dropped into a restaurant for a local delicacy, a root that is jellied and flavoured with fruit. The colour doesn’t do it justice, but the key thing is it’s fat and calorie free and loved by the Chinese to keep themselves cool.

Early evening we went out for our final tour group dinner and headed to a noodle bar to eat with the locals.

Our dinner for two, along with beers, was a steal at just £3 and was both tasty and filling. After almost a month in China we are mastering the use of chopsticks and avoiding spillages by drinking from the bowl when we get to the end, mirroring our tour leader, Kris’s approach.

After the success of the bracelet purchases yesterday, we returned for more with Jamie and Christine. The owner of the shop was kept busy making an extra 8 bracelets!

We also managed to pick up some earrings for Amelia and Meg as a surprise gift when we see them in a weeks time.

Tomorrow we make our final journey of the tour to Hong Kong a 4hr train journey away. The last 17 days have passed by incredibly quickly from our original meeting on the 13th in Beijing. We’ve been lucky to meet some lovely people and make friendships that we are sure will extend beyond the tour.