How it came to be
I met Penny Tai or Vet Penny at the Clicker Expo in the USA in 2006 where I gave a Canine Freestyle lecture and workshop. We had a nice chat about dog training and agreed that I would give a seminar in Taiwan and China. We planned it a few times, but for one reason or other, I could not travel. Finally, in 2018 we managed to find a date which suited all of us; Penny who planned the workshops and his friends Nathan and Raven who organised them.
Taiwan
I landed at the Taiwan airport and I was lucky that Penny recognised me as I entered the arrival lounge as I could not recognise him, even if he looked exactly as 10+ years ago. Perhaps that was the problem, he looked much, much younger than I expected. The organisation was fantastic and very kind at each place, Taichung, Beijing and Shanghai Penny’s team planned a few days sightseeing. In Taiwan the day after my arrival, they planned to visit the ancient Cypress forest in the Yushan national park.
In the morning on the day trip I had breakfast at the hotel, however Penny insisted to try some local pancakes at his favourite street seller as we left Taichung. I definitely did not regret it as it was delicious. The pastry is similar to the Hungarian “Langos”, however it has different herbs mixed into the pastry.
It took about 3 hours through steep mountain roads to reach the tourist centre. We took a 5 minute local train journey to reach the part of the forest where the old Cypress trees were located. I have never seen such impressive trees before – 800-1200 year old cypresses with 6-8 m trunk diameter. The oxygen rich air re-energised me after the long trip, and the jet leg disappeared at least for a few hours.
The next two days I held a dog dance workshop. The participants of the workshop were dog trainers, who planned to teach and spread the canine freestyle in Taiwan. They were very enthusiastic to learn. During the first part of the workshop I covered how to warm up and develop coordination for handlers and dogs. Then we progressed teaching the heelwork and freestyle exercises, finishing with the basic principles of choreographing and performing routines. This workshop was immensely practical and required a lot of practice.
Beijing
The following day we flew from Taipei to Beijing in China. Here, thanks to the generosity of my hosts, I had two days of sightseeing. On the first day, Nathan took me to see the “Great Wall of China”. Citing a well-known quote by Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the founder of modern China:
“不去长城 非好汉” (Bù qù chángchéng fēi hǎohàn) – “He who has not been to the Great Wall is not a true man”!
I am not sure about his statement in general, as there certainly must have been a few true men, who have never seen the Great Wall of China. Having said that, it is the most impressive human built wonder of the world that I have seen. It is unimaginable how they built this 1600-mile-long structures on the top of mountains. I guess the pictures speak better than my ability to express my impression in words.
The following day, I started the two-day Dog Dance workshop at the exclusive hotel where we were staying. Again, the participants, as in Taichung, were dog training instructors who travelled from different areas. And some of the participants participated with dogs that they borrowed from their local friends or clients. The atmosphere was fantastic, and the participants were very keen to learn. The programme was the same as in Taichung; Warm Up, BTB-training technique, teaching heelwork and freestyle exercises, choreography principles and practice. They were also keen to learn about the competition rules. Some of the participants were learning, looking to train other instructors, and some competed in Frisbee Freestyle and other dog sports. I was glad to have everyone keen to learn, as well as their dogs.
Following the workshop, we had another day sightseeing, this time the programme started with eating the famous Peking duck at the Dong restaurant and then seeing Tianna Square and the “Emperor’s palace”. Tianna square was cornered off, and we could only see it from the other side of the street.
Then we went to see the Emperor’s place. This exceeded all my expectations based on Chinese martial art films. It’s a series of complex and beautiful buildings, each having a different function. The emperor and the ministers were moving around depending what they were doing and discussing. My first surprise was the security measures put in place. Entering the underground stations or any public building, any luggage went through a security scan, as well as at the airports.
Following the sightseeing, we had a nervous journey to the airport due to a huge traffic jam. Luckily, we managed to catch our flight to Shanghai, which travels will be written about soon