Studying in China at Shi De Yang School (Help, tips, advice?)

[DAW]

Hello all. Been a while since I have posted anything. I am going to be training with my Shifu (Shi De Ru) for 6 weeks while living at his school, and then am going to go to China to train at the Shi De Yang school for 1 year. Naturally I'm not entirely sure what to expect in Dengfeng, or at the school.
If anyone has any experience with Shi Deyang's school or has experience training for an extended period in China and could bless me with some wisdom, I would very much appreciate it. Thank you all.

[rett2]

I'd guess the most important thing is to practice and study Chinese as much as possible between now and when you go.

Deng Feng is the way it is. Maybe a good idea to plan for a couple of breaks during the year. Travel home or somewhere nice in China for a week or so every 3 or 4 months and recuperate some. Or try to get some friends and family to come visit you around the halfway mark.

[LFJ]

If health is important to you but you still want to make such a long trip, be sure to get an anti-pollution face mask or two that can filter PM2.5 and stock up on plenty of filters to last the whole year.

[rett2]

If health is important to you but you still want to make such a long trip, be sure to get an anti-pollution face mask or two that can filter PM2.5 and stock up on plenty of filters to last the whole year.

Is the air quality really that bad in Deng Feng? I was usually there in the rainy summer period and the air was much better than in Beijing. In September and October there were good days and less good days, but it still wasn't anything like Beijing. Usually there was beautiful blue sky, you could see the stars at night etc. That was between five and ten years ago, though.

[LFJ]

Is the air quality really that bad in Deng Feng? I was usually there in the rainy summer period and the air was much better than in Beijing. In September and October there were good days and less good days, but it still wasn't anything like Beijing. Usually there was beautiful blue sky, you could see the stars at night etc. That was between five and ten years ago, though.

Beijing can have nice blue sky days as well, though few and far between.

Unfortunately, air pollution doesn't just sit it one place. It's blown all around the country. Places that may not be contributing much to it are also affected.

If you scroll down on this page you can see the AQI (Air Quality Index) forecast across a map of the whole country. At the time of posting this, central China is constantly in red Unhealthy levels and at times purple Very Unhealthy levels. Dengfeng is gonna be right in the middle of that. There's no escape.

http://aqicn.org/forecast/zhengzhou

Here are three major cities surrounding Dengfeng and their AQI levels (Dengfeng doesn't have any monitoring stations). As you can see in their forecasts, each of them is constantly in the red Unhealthy level.

Luoyang's max over the past 48 hours (as of posting this) reached 204, which is in the purple Very Unhealthy level.

Zhengzhou
Luoyang
Xuchang

You can search for any major American or European country for stark contrast.

[rett2]

Very nice link, thanks.