My whole life I've been interested in martial arts. I studied judo as a child, then karate. But itwas only when I moved to another city in Belgium where there was a kungfu club, that I reallyenjoyed it and fully understood why they call it an art. It is fighting and defending yourself, butit's also understanding your body more, making it stronger and healthier. Kungfu is a wholephilosophy and is a big part of Chinese culture. I have always watched kungfu movies (whodoesn't know Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jet Li?), because I loved their movements. When Istarted to practice kungfu, I realized how difficult it was and a simple kick or punch demandedmonths of practice. But I loved it! A whole new world was opening to me. After I practiced 4 years of kungfu in Belgium, I wanted to go to the country where this martialart originated from. I went to China with a travel organization. It was a trip that included somekungfu and taichi lessons. It was an international group, so there were people from all over theworld. We went from Hong Kong to Guilin, Yangshuo, Xi'an, Luoyang and Shaolin and finallyBeijing. We did 2 kungfu lessons in Yangshuo with the brothers Gao, who had a family stylecalled BuDiZhen. We did 1 taichi lesson in Xi'an and 2 more kungfu lessons in Shaolin. I wasimpressed by Yangshuo and the Gao brothers. Yangshuo is a beautiful little town in the middleof karst mountains and near the Li river. The Gao brothers' family style was close to the style Iwas practicing in Belgium. I could only dream of my next trip to China. The next year, my dream became true: I went to China again, together with some friends of mykungfu club. We stayed 1 month in Yangshuo, just to practice kungfu. I didn't do anything of thetouristic attractions that Yangshuo has (and Yangshuo has much to offer), but did more than 4hours of kungfu every day, the rest of the time, I rested or spent in the bar. I met a lot ofpeople, foreigners, that stayed in Yangshuo for a long time, several months to several yearsand they all told me that it's easy to live here as a foreigner. Back in Belgium, the only thing I could think about was: what's the fastest way to go back toYangshuo and live there for a longer period? I was working in a bank and in Belgium you havethe possibility to take a sabbatical year. After that, you can just return to your job again. Afterall the formalities, I returned back to Yangshuo at the end of that year. That was in december2008. It felt like living in a dream: although it was really cold at that time in Yangshuo, I didn't care. Ipracticed kungfu for more than 6 hours a day, went to the bar to keep warm (there is no properheating, so in winter we have to wear more than 5 layers of clothes and keep next to a smallelectric heater or some heated coals to stay warm). After 3 months of intense training, I decidedto teach English as well. Yangshuo has a lot of English schools where Chinese adults want toimprove their English. I made a lot of friends from all different countries and we had a lot offun!! I decided not to go back to Belgium. After my sabbatical, I just sent an email to my formeremployer that I stayed in China and that was it. Life here was too relaxing and too beautiful togive it up. In the summer of 2010, CCTV4 came here to film for a travel program and they wanted to followa foreigner for 1 day to see the life of a foreigner in Yangshuo. They chose me and filmed mewhile practicing kungfu and asked me about my life here. In autumn of that same year, my life changed for the better. I was still teaching English and 1day I went to school and everyone was telling me that there was a taichi master in the school,who wanted to learn English. He had won a lot of gold medals already and was teachingChinese, but he wanted to learn English to teach foreigners as well. His name is Wu YuPingand he was a student in my class. I immediately became his tai chi student as well. We becamegood friends, went to the bar together, but even though we went out till 3am, we got up at 6amagain to practice tai chi in the park. I loved it, practicing in the park that early has somethingmagical. After a few weeks, we couldn't hide our feelings anymore: we were in love with eachother. There was only 1 problem: Students and teachers couldn't have a relationship with eachother, so we had to keep it a secret. But Yangshuo is such a small town, so people knew veryquickly that something was going on. I didn't want to get fired, so I quit my job and wentteachingin another school. Then, we didn't have to hide anything anymore and could tell allour friends. With Ping, my life in China has finally more meaning and is full. He can teach me somuch about the rich culture of this country and make me understand more of it. We are more than 2 years later and our relationship is still strong. We already live together formore than 1 year. Ping has his own tai chi school here in Yangshuo and is teaching foreigners,his dream, and I have a coffeeshop and chocolateshop now. I am selling Belgian chocolate andbeer, together with good coffee and breakfast. We keep on practicing tai chi together, althoughnot at 6am anymore. I must say that I never experienced a culture shock here. My life is going really well and yes, Ican get annoyed by Chinese people that stare at me or take pictures, but I try not to think toomuch of it. I sometimes get annoyed by people's behavior in my country as well. My life is inChina. Every 2 years I go back to Belgium to visit my family and I encounter a bigger cultureshock there, because I stepped out of that life and I am not familiar anymore with the stressy,rushing lifestyle there. 我整整一生都處於對武術的癡迷之中。當我還是個孩子的時候就學習了柔道，之後學了空手道。但是當我搬到比利時另外一個有功夫俱樂部的城市時，我才真正體會到了武術的魅力，同時也完全理解了爲什麼人們稱它爲一種藝術。它是一種戰鬥同時也是在進行一種自我防衛，這其實也達到了讓你更加了解自己的身體，從而使它變得更加強壯和健康的目的。功夫是一門完整的哲學，而且是中國文化的重要組成部分。我一直在看功夫片（誰不知道李小龍、成龍或是李連杰呢？），因爲我愛他們的動作。當我開始練習功夫的時候，我才意識到它有多麼地困難，哪怕是簡單的一踢或者一打就需要幾個月的時間去練習。但是我太愛它了！一個全新的世界正向我敞開它的大門。 在比利時練習了四年功夫之後，我想去武術的發源地看看。我跟隨一個旅遊社來到了中國。這次的旅行包含有一些功夫和太極的課程。這是一個國際團，所以這裏有來自世界各地的人。我們從香港出發去了桂林，陽朔，西安，洛陽，還去了少林寺，最後一站我們來到了北京。我在陽朔一個號稱具有“步地真”家傳功夫的高氏兄弟那裏報了兩個功夫班。我們在西安上了一節太極課，還在少林寺上了兩節功夫課。我被陽朔和高氏兄弟深深地吸引了。陽朔是一個座落在麗江之畔、喀斯特山體中間的美麗小鎮。高氏兄弟的家傳功夫和我在比利時練習的形式非常的接近。我只能夢想着下一次來中國的旅行了。 第二年，我的夢想成真了：我再一次來到了中國，這次是和我在功夫俱樂部的幾個朋友一起來的。我們在陽朔停留了一個月僅僅是爲了練習功夫。我並沒有逛陽朔的旅遊景點（陽朔確實有很多的景點供人遊覽），而是每天花費4個多小時的時間打太極，剩下的時間我用來休息或者泡在酒吧裏面。我遇見了很多人，其中有一些已經在陽朔生活了很長一段時間的外國人，不管是呆了幾個月的還是幾年的，都告訴我作爲一個外國人生活在陽朔是很容易的。 回到比利時之後，我能夠想到的唯一一件事情就是：回到陽朔並且能在那裏生活更長一段時間最快的方法是什麼？我當時在一家銀行工作，在比利時你是有休年假的機會的，而且假期過後你還可以再一次回到自己的工作崗位上來。所有的正式手續都辦好之後，我就在那年的年底回到了陽朔。那是在2008年的12月份。 那感覺就好像是生活在夢境之中：雖然那個時候的陽朔非常的寒冷，我卻一點都不在乎。我每天練習超過6小時的太極，我去酒吧裏面取暖（那裏沒有特有的供暖設備，所以在冬天我們不得不穿上超過5層的衣服以保持和小型電加熱器或者是燃煤取暖相接近的溫度）。就這樣強化訓練了3個月之後，我也決定去教英語。陽朔有很多供中國的成年人提高英語水平的英語學校。我和來自不同國家的很多人都建立了友誼，而且我們都過得非常開心！！我當時決定不回比利時了，所以在我的年假結束之後我給的前任老闆寄了一封郵件，我告訴他我要留在中國，就是這樣。這裏的生活實在是太和緩太美妙了我實在是捨不得離開。 2010年的夏天，中央電視臺第四頻道的工作人員來到這裏拍攝一個旅遊節目的電影，他們想要花費一天的時間來跟隨一個外國人，看看外國人在陽朔的生活是什麼樣的。他們選擇了我，對我練習太極的情景進行了短暫的拍攝之後他們還問了我一些在這裏的生活問題。 同一年的秋天，我的生活開始向更好的方向發展。我仍舊在教英語，但突然有一天我來到學校之後，所有的人都在告訴我學校裏有一個太極界的大師想要學習英語。他已經贏得了很多的金牌，現在正在教漢語，但是他也想要學習英語以便教授更多的外國人漢語。他的名字叫做吳語平（音譯），現在是我班上的一名學生。而我也立即成爲了他的太極學生。我們成爲了好朋友，我們一起去酒吧，但是即便是在外面呆到凌晨3點，我們還是會在早晨6點來到公園練太極。我深愛着它，我感覺每天在公園裏的晨練存在着一種魔力。幾個星期過後，我們再也無法隱藏彼此的感情了：我們彼此相愛了。只有一個問題：學生和老師之間是不能談戀愛的，因此我們不得不將這件事情保密起來。但陽朔是那麼小的一個鎮子，人們很快就知道有什麼事情發生了。我不想要被炒魷魚，所以我辭退了我的工作去了另外一個學校當老師。在那之後，我們完全不必再隱藏什麼，我們可以把這件事情告訴所有的朋友。和平（音譯）在一起，終於讓我在中國的生活變得更加的有意義也更加的完整。他可以教給我有關於這個國家很多的豐富文化知識，同時也能讓我對它們理解得更加透徹。 在一起兩年之後我們的關係依然很親密。我們已經同居一年多了。平在陽朔有他自己的太極學校，他可以教外國人知識，還有他的夢想，而我現在也有了一家咖啡館和一家巧克力店。我出售比利時的巧克力和啤酒，同時還提供優質的咖啡和早餐。我們仍舊堅持一起練習太極，雖然已經不是在早上6點了。 我必須說在這裏我從來沒有體驗過文化衝突。我的生活進行得非常順利，當然，當中國人盯着我看或者是要同我合影的時候我也會變得很氣惱，但是我儘量不去想得太多。我有的時候也會因爲自己國家人的行爲感到氣惱。我的生活是在中國的。我每兩年回一次比利時去看望我的家人，在那裏我遇到了更大的文化衝突，因爲我早已走出了那種生活，而且我對那裏緊張匆忙的生活方式一點也不熟悉了。
