Location: South China
OS Grid Reference:
Date: 28 June 2007
Time: 7pm
Site: Square on Fu Qan Road, near the Li River, Yangshuo, Guilin, China

Description:I can feel your fun spirit, lighthearted, springy and lightfooted.
I am overwhelmed by input from this space, being on the bridge, it is
ornate and every step changes my height and the respective level of view
of my surroundings. Knowing there is water underneath me; the lily
ponds, and water near me; the Li River. The sound of my shoes on the ground informs much of my movements, swishy and wishy and scratchy, I create a soundscape along the floor.
So many places to climb on and under and through, to balance precariously, looking down and seeing the lily ponds, or the sharp rocks below… heart thumping. Some parts of the bridge walls wobble and are unsafe as I lean on them, I feel the cracks. At one point a lip I had been leaning on comes apart, I laugh nervously, and hope you saw it. I look for you to see your response. I feel we are truly connected at this point and see you peering out at me from beyond.
As I lean over the wall I marvel at the patterns the lilies make in the pond, then I notice the beautiful orange fish, maybe Koi, could be 200 years old! I look closer and realise it is just the fish’s head, surrounded by discarded plastic bags.
I look up at the sky and see, once again, the astounding mountainous fairytale peaks, between them are clouds- one dark, black, heavy and long, permanently placed behind the smaller pure white, whispy, ones that float by in the foreground.
In the square there are many locals watching me, unsure what to make of it, taking photographs and scratching their heads in bemusement. The children are delighted and they come directly up to me repeatedly for closer looks, skipping away giggling.
The sun slowly begins to set, offering pinks, reds and purples into the vision.
My sense is that we had fun. I had a little difficulty at first connecting with you, was distracted by my own dancing and the very full environment, then you pulled me a little, knocked me about a bit, and we jumped around together, springing on the steps and leaping about with light, joyful spirits...with the occasional searching, yearning, reaching, seeking continuously cropping into the experience as a kind of unspoken, unavoidable underscore.

Present:Master Wang Zhi Ping
yangshuotaiji@yahoo.com.cn
www.southchina-taichi.com
Videographer 1: Frank (English name)-Yangshuo local, non professional.
Haosj919@163.com
Videographer 2: Iain Armstrong -based in Birmingham, professional.
iainarmstrong@hotmail.com
Support: Ian McCormick
ian.mccormick@hotmail.co.uk

Any other comments:

Description:Its chilly for June, super green, flies land on me, challenging me to stay still. Air seems to be pushing up the underside of my arms, lifting, rising up, and the distance between one elevated hand and the other is alive, until slowly deliberately my hands meet, join with the force of metal on metal, a whiff of wild garlic, soft mossy bridge side, grit, stones, playing with rising and falling, above the sides of the bridge as the sound of the water crescendos and subsides, make a bridge with my body over the bridge for you to pass under then I walk North on the bridge - feels like your energy is behind me, I’m leaning back and moving forward and you are taking my weight and moving the same way as me. Enough width for a pony but not a cart. I notice a spiders thread, the smooth stones on the bridge floor, darting, turning, twisting, I stop and rest for a while, then I’m crossing North again from my safe spot, there is some kind of energetic focus up here, my speed builds, I play and fight, I respond to something I can’t see, posturing, pulling, jumping, expelling until my mouth is full of saliva. Mischievous and playful. I sound my voice, low, and return to peace, resting against the bridge watching a bubble of froth float downstream to you. Another whiff of garlic, isn’t it too late? I’ve crossed over. Namaste.

Present:Jo Salter, some walkers

Any other comments:

The city of Sheffield was flooded this week, hundreds of people evacuated from their homes as a dam threatened to burst, cars, fish, people, earthworms, floated through the streets. Its 2 days later, the water level has subsided but the memory of streams - carved ruts through the sandy stony paths.