I’ve been too swamped to post much to the blog in the last few weeks (those of you who have watched have seen it decompress and lose shape literally), so I have a couple of posts from my brother Joe on his further travels in China. This one makes American road rage look tame by comparison–read Joe’s email for yourself:
“Drunken Boxing techniques are based on the legend of the ‘Eight Immortals’ of the Taoist Sect from Chinese Mythology. Each of the techniques in the Drunken Set demonstrates an attribute of one of the Immortals. The principle concept behind Drunken Kung Fu, is to move as if one were half drunk. The secret behind Drunken style kung fu is the sudden release of power from awkward positions.”
On the way to Jinshaling, North of Beijing, to hike to Great Wall to Simatai, our bus was cut off making a left turn in the left lane – from the left… The taxi driver who nearly capsized us, spun out and came to a stop causing a traffic freeze. He was so convinced of his right he got out and went into a rage in the middle of the road (a divided 8 lane boulevard). Our driver was a young wiry guy who looked like he had had a long night out with his buddies and had been too long without a cigarette. Yeah you can see where this is going… Forget about meditative face preservation and control of emotions.Â¬Ý Apparently some things in the East are settled the hard way.
The taxi driver grabbed our driver by the shirt and they wrestled back and forth exchanging their own deeply philsophical viewpoints on the accident. The guy just wasn’t giving in… then it happened…The taxi driver struck first (we were all amazed as he was twice our drivers age, but he was much larger). He looked like he was dancing like a baboon in heat but landed a pretty solid one in the chest of our driver.
Battle in Beijing… Shaolin showdown. Thrilla in Manila… Our guy woke up and came loose at the seams. He danced around the other guy smacking him around, until he had him beside his car hood, then came down off his heels with a head blow that we could hear inside the bus over the horns blaring. The taxi driver hit the hood with a thump and staggered around for awhile, his eye was swelling shut fast. He looked as if he had calmed down and asked our driver to call the police. Our driver – still shaking- gladly obliged, walking away to dial… Then the bus driver tried to reach into our bus and grab the keys to throw them down the sewer. I was riding shotgum so I grabbed them and went to push him away when our driver came back for more.
Bystanders cleared the way and our driver took the chance to clear out. What a trip, it was not even 10am yet and we already got our money’s worth. I got off a clear shot of the fight but when I turned over my camera to have the pictures burned to CD, both copies (camera and CD) were gone. Coincidence or Big Brother watching? Who knows in communist China… I plan to try to salvage the files when I get back to Guam.
God, I love this country…