Day 6 Tianshui/ Master Qi/ TV interview/ Eating by the river

This morning required an early rise and a quick breakfast, as the Master was waiting for us in the park with the community and local television.

Upon our arrival, the practitioners were seen in their uniform appearance. Many scenes were filmed, showcasing wonderful Tai Chi sequences that appeared harmonious, balanced, and powerful. I was incredibly impressed, and of course, there was the usual activity in the park with various sports exercises ranging from dance to basic stretching and fan Tai Chi.

A little later, Norbert Staab and I were up for the interviews, luckily always with a translator. However, this proved to be challenging, so we later had to translate our spoken text back into Chinese on the iPhone. I of course emphasized the exchange between Germany and Tianshui, especially the German-Chinese exchange.

Tianshui translates to: “Sky Water”. The place had a different name many, many years ago, and a great drought came over the land, causing the people to starve. Eventually, everyone pilgrimaged to the temple and prayed for the drought to end, and that night it began to rain; suddenly the water was there, and the name of the place was changed to Tianshui. So goes the legend.

After the exhausting morning in the park, we went to the museum to practice with the Master.

It’s really very hot, currently 32 - 36 degrees, so the only relief is to walk in the shade, wearing a sun hat and sunglasses.

After the lunch break, we continue practicing. For dinner, we meet by the river and decide to walk through a market with many intriguing sights and smells, but we end up eating in a restaurant at a table. Everyone selects something. We place it on the table, and they are again the revolving tables, and everyone tastes everything. We pay a total of five euros per person for a hearty meal.

We walk back to the hotel in the dark along the lit river.

However, in the evening, I do experience some stomach discomfort. But that subsides over the course of the night. Maybe it was the food after all.

Here in China, there's a saying: we eat everything from the water except ships, we eat everything from the sky except airplanes.

And of course, the Chinese eat a lot of pork and chicken, lamb, goat. And from these animals, really everything.

When we were invited to dinner, for example, there was also lamb meat and sheep's stomach.

I tried both, and it tasted good.