This is an account of the first trip, of friends made, successes and failures, and first and foremost, of the actual conditions during 2 months that 25 people spent together in the summer of 2004.

How it all began

It began in November 2003. I suggested to Michael Yao that it might be interesting to go to China and play go during the summer. This had been mentioned jokingly before, and around 5 years ago, another 5d in Sweden, had brought a small group of Swedish people to a sightseeing and go trip in Beijing.

Michael thought that such a trip might actually be possible, and that we could invite other players in Sweden and Europe to join. This would make it more interesting both for the participants, who would find it easier to spend the time in a group where people knew English and shared the common interest of go, and for the organizers, as it is easier both to arrange accomodation, get teachers involved and get other parties interested when a large group is going. The main difficulty would be the organization, as in a larger group, it is more likely that there will be some intrigues and difficulties during the trip.

Preliminaries

Just a couple of weeks later the trip was in the planning stages. We set up some goals for what we could expect in terms of cost and participant numbers. 20 people seemed as a reasonable goal, where it would still be easy to get to know everyone within the first days. We also hoped for some international participation, as it would make it easier to spread the trip more until next year. As it was the first trip, and we knew that everyone who joined would take a risk, and so we were not interested in making a large profit, just to cover the risk and some of our own costs. This means that this trip was very cheap, with the people spending the least using up only around 17000 kr for 2 months all inclusive (although a more reasonable budget was probably around 21000 kr). We expect that future trips will be a little more expensive, but still very cheap considering the length of the trip and what you get for the money!

In the beginning, these goals seemed hard to reach, with many people expressing interest but not so many registering, and after 3 months, we had only around 10 people registered, with 5-10 more who had expressed interest but could not commit yet. 10 people would be enough, but it would be hard to make teachers in China commit to the project with so few participants. In addition, good teaching, especially lectures, would depend on the individual groups not being too far spread out in rank.

However, in late March it seemed we would be okay after all. More than 15 people were already registered. And in the end, with many people registering near the deadline of April 30, we had 27 people registered, and we were ready to go. In terms of number of participants, it was better than expected already, and it would get better. The only thing that was difficult to find an apartment complex that were willing to rent apartments for only 2 months, but in the end, we succeeded, and the experience gained this year will make it easier next time.

In all these arrangements, Michael and Bao Yun were crucial, and it would have been impossible to make the arrangements this good without them.

Arriving and settling in

We met in Stockholm in the afternoon of August 10. 10 people, and still 4 hours to go until the plane would leave. I was waiting for 20. Would everyone find their way to the airport? Everyone did. But at the time of check-in, we had only found 19, and I was near panic, until I asked the flight attendant at the check-in desk if the last member of our group had checked in. She said she wasn’t really allowed to tell me, but that he had, and I felt more calm.

The flight went ok, but without much sleep. We arrived early in the morning, rather tired. Michael and Bao Yun had arranged to meet us in a bus at the airport. The driver insisted that we could only put two of the bags in the rather large storage spaces under the bus, and so we had to put the rest of the luggage inside the rather small bus. Crowded, but at the time it didn’t make much difference.

Our apartments were excellent, but mostly unfurnished, so some work during the first week was spent putting everything in order, in the bedrooms and kitchen. We had 4 apartments, 3 of them spread out on floors 4, 17 and 26 in one building, and the other one on floor 4 in the nearby building. Tennis court and swimming pool was nearby, as well as a supermarket. All the apartments were in a western standard gated community, with around 10 30-ish floor buildings. The only thing that was not western standard was the plumbing. The air conditioning and water machines would also break a few times during the trip. But overall, the biggest problem with the apartments was cleaning them up after a night of beer and go.

We discovered rather quickly that the mattresses were too hard, and in turns, people would buy new softer ones at the super market. Around 10€ each. Guess we have to find softer ones next time, so the time in China can be better spent. After two weeks, only 2 or 3 hard-backed people remained who would stick to the hard beds for the whole two months. Also, Bao Yun and Cheng Lan, two top amateur go players of Tsinghua university, would stay with us for the whole 2 months, on the top floor of course.

So far, the prices were human, the people friendly, and the food is excellent. It would stay that way for the whole summer.

The second day we spent resting and with a short language lesson and introduction of the participants. The evening was spent for a get together dinner with traditional food, Beijing duck and loads of side dishes. It looked like a big feast, but in fact, many of our dinners would look this way. We also had a chance to meet some of our teachers.

Afterwards some people went out to get a few drinks at a "local" bar. There were some comments that it is unusual that the taxi trip is cheaper than the beer, but perhaps this was because the particpants tried the foreign brands in an expensive bar. Some people (not me either) also watched the first football games from the European Championships. Unfortunately, the games are in the middle of the night here, but it seems to be no problems to find the games on TV here. Strange that they would put the European Championships in the middle of the night and the Asian Cup on prime time later in August.

The first days of go

I lost my first even game to Cheng Lan. In fact, the first day of teaching games seemed very one-sided. In the afternoon, we had another language session. The evening, we tried out Tai Chi, with a teacher we had met during a Frisbee game some night earlier. We were around 10 people, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, but toward the end of our stay, only 2 people would remain in Tai Chi training. Unfortunately, I have to report that my body has neither the coordination nor the static strength needed for Tai Chi.

Tuesday we played frisbee in the morning and I played Harry and An 6d during the day. The day was finished at a restaurant with only donkey meat. I was a little skeptical, but the donkey burgers were delicious. Unfortunately, a large portion of the people who went for donkey had to wrestle a stomach illness for the next few days.

Wednesday, An 6d held a seminar. He emphasized the fundamentals, and how he only teaches his students variations that they can understand. If the student can not read out a difficult fight, he will encourage him to try it even if it is strange or unreasonable. It is up to the student himself to come up with a good battle plan, the teacher can only provide the weapons. He gave the lecture in Chinese, with Michael translating to English, and it went quite well, if a bit slow. Later, An would prove to be a great asset in teaching go, especially to the newer players, as he has a lot of experience in the area. Ans spoken English also improved a lot during the trip.

He also mentioned some of his games from the day before. He said that he had changed his play against me in the second game, to leave weaknesses, and so be able to counter-attack, as I played very aggressively in our first game. He was certainly right, this plan has succeeded perfectly. And imagine, he was playing 7 games simultanously at the time! Another of his comments was also about me: ”You are the strongest of the players, but you overplay a lot.”. It was not purely a negative comment, as overplays will teach you about weaknesses in your own shapes. Unfortunately, it can, and often leads to crushing losses against stronger players. He also mentioned some of the other games, and showed that he had understood the playing styles of all 7 players in these simultans.

In the evening I played with BaoYun, first in a 13 stone game where he tried to kill all my stones (it was close!). Normally, the pros can play an “even” game on 17 stones, where it is both hard to live and to kill all the stones of the opponent. Later during the trip, Bao Yun would take 9 stones against some of the weaker players (around 10 kyu) and try to kill all their stones. It really must be quite intimidating to lose a game like that.

Later, I played a blind go game where Cheng Lan had to take over after I made a mistake in the large avalanche. Cheng Lan won the game in the end, after he had made a misread and lost a group in a difficult tsumego. Bao Yun commented that he thinks he loses around 10-15 points in blind go, which is very impressive, and would most likely put him above all European amateurs.

Thursday, it was my turn to play with Bao Yun. I played on 4 stones, and I lost, after a rather disappointing game. After the trip, I feel confident I can beat Bao Yun on 4 stones, but I don’t know if I would feel as sure with some money at stake.

The day after, Daniel got his chance to play with BaoYun, with BaoYun playing blind go. Daniel got 5 stones. Lasse Jakobsen also got his chance to play a 13-year-old professional 2 dan today in a 1-on-1 game. In the end, both lost, but gave convincing performances.

Saturday we had a no regular programme, and made a small excursion to a nearby park. In the evening I studied some go with ChengLan.

Sunday we had a local guide, Jue Jue, show us around town, to the shopping street and Wangfujing, and a chance to try Dance Dance Revolution at an arcade there.

Monday held a trip to the Great Wall. The trip was organized by a travel agency, in a very touristic manner. Bao Yun, his girl friend Mao Mao, Cheng Lan, and another of our teachers, Qi Xiao Lo (Lou Lou for short) came with us. We first went to the jade factory, then to the wall, and afterwards to a ceramics factory before lunch. The guide also notified us that we had to go up to the wall by cable car [in fact, a small ride that looked much like a roller coaster] and we paid 60 yuan extra for something unnecessary. I guess the guide got some provision there.

We visited the Badaling part of the wall, which is mostly restaurated. It was an excellent sight. However, salesmen crowded the first part of the walk, and not until we had reached the top and walked back on the other side we could feel "alone" on the wall. In the afternoon, we had a quick look at Tienanmen square, and I guess we will come back there to look at the forbidden city.

But, no more of these tourist traps for us. In the future we would arrange our trips ourselves.

Teachers

Now that I have described the events over the first 10 days or so, and in the story, we have already encountered our main teachers during the trip, I think it is time to write a word about them.

Bao Yun - Our main organizer of the trip in China was Bao Yun. He was 22 years old at the start of the trip, but turned 23 near the end. Once a professional go player, he is now studying computer science at Tsinghua university. He is originally from Beijing.

Bao Yun was perhaps the most “normal” of our regular teachers, and could on appearance only be described as a slacker. He liked sleeping in late, giving unprepared lectures, and crush you in go while looking like he was ready to fall asleep. He was really friendly, and happy most of the time, and enjoyed going for a swim, a game of tennis, pool, or for karaoke. He also liked going out for a drink or shish-kebab. While seeming really lazy, Bao Yun was also rumoured to take go really seriously, and it was said that he was studying during the day and playing go during the night. Maybe that’s why he always looked so tired. Bao Yun could also be convinced to play any other game, from computer games to poker or bridge. He would also come with us on most of our excursion.

His girl friend Mao Mao played a game of go during our first day in Beijing, but could not make a go teacher yet. She was stronger in 5 in a row, but I never had a chance to play her. Maybe after some training from Bao Yun she will make a more prominent go player. Usually, she came with us too when we went somewhere.

Cheng Lan - The only other teacher who lived with us for the whole 2 months was Cheng Lan. In a sense, he was a direct opposite of Bao Yun. He is 24 years old and comes from Yellow Mountains. After a couple of years of lab work, he is now starting a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Beijing University, giving up allegiance to Tsinghua where he got his first degree. His main feat in go is remembering the first even game I played with him, 2 months after it was played. He is also known to have used the phrase “Of course” many times, and managing to learn only one Swedish word, “Ja”, meaning yes, after 2 months surrounded by Swedes.

Cheng Lan was a rather quiet, serious and dedicated person, who also made our best teacher during the time in Beijing. It was nice to have someone who didn’t easily lose his cool. He was also incredibly patient in reviewing almost every single teaching game he played, which must have numbered in several 100s, as he was often seen playing simultans. The first few weeks, I thought Cheng Lan was playing go every waken hour, but later, he spent more time reading novels or logged in to the university BBS on one of the computers.

He too was always very friendly and helpful, but his knowledge of Beijing was limited to the university area, so he was not the person best suited as an area guide. He was harder to convince, but he too would usually come with us, and maybe he had done more sightseeing in the Beijing area during these 2 months than he has during at least 4 years before in Beijing.

Cheng Lan was officially a Chinese 3d, but 8d* on igs and tom.

Lou Lou - Qi Xiao Lo (Lou Lou) gave the lectures to the middle level players for some of the weeks. At 21 years old, she was a third year computer science student at Tsinghua university, although it sounded like she’d rather do something else (playing cards or singing karaoke perhaps).

Her English was at first very academic, and she was rather shy, which made for some slow lectures at first, but with time, she became more secure, and her English less academic. However, it is hard to forget the Freudian “This move gives more pleasure to black.” (where pleasure should be pressure, of course). She was also the teacher to learn the most Swedish during the trip, and the one to play most cards, almost every afternoon toward the end. She too would join our excursions, and especially seemed to enjoy karaoke, Big Pizza (an all-you-can-eat restaurant) and Beijing Amusement Park.

Cha Wei was meant to teach alongside Lou Lou, but only showed up 2 times. She had a really nice dress the few times she showed up, but maybe she was not patient enough to teach us. She would have made a good teacher too!

Mr. An - Mr. An was one of Bao Yuns friends, who showed up regularly. He was around 30, and Chinese 6d. His English was not so good, but he was extremely good at communicating, and very good at teaching go. He would not come with us on weekends and excursions, so we learnt most about him as a go teacher, but he was really outgoing and relaxed, so I think he would have been easy to get along with.

On occasion, he brought his daughter and one of her friends, both 1d in China (and low kyus in Europe) to play with some of the players of our group.

Other teachers

Liu Chin, a World University Go Competition winner, and around the same level as Bao Yun and Cheng Lan, would come occasionally to give teaching games. He too seemed extremely friendly, and I hope he can participate more next year.

Chen Jia 2p, Wing, and other players from the Tsinghua University go team would occasionally, but more as friends of Bao Yun and Cheng Lan than as our teachers. Still, I took the chances I got to play with them, and most of them seemed keen on playing go.

Huong Xiwen, 6p, who runs his own go school, came and played teaching games with us once. I think he may hold the world record in slamming stones hard on a go board. It works very well as an intimidation technique, especially from a strong player. But, while I am not really strong enough to judge, I felt more power from the moves of Bao Yun than when I played Huong Xiwen.

7 more weeks in China

As we are now all well and settled in in China, except some colds and stomach trouble, I will now change the format of the account. I will describe some of the events with experienced in China, starting with the go events, and ending with some sightseeing and generals.

We have just spent a little less than 1 week settling in, getting rid of the jetlag, and mostly everyone felt ready to play go a little more actively. True, some people were still feeling tired, and some people were still feeling bad after the visit to the “donkey restaurant”.

In the beginning, studying go seemed really exciting. We had lectures every day, starting from the second week, and people were divided into 3 groups, according to strength. Cheng Lan would teach the top group, Luo Luo or Bao Yun or both would teach the middle group, and Mr. An or Bao Yun would teach the beginners. Every day, almost everyone would show up for the lectures, at least at first.

During the afternoon, there would be teaching games with the same teachers, and a number of more players, usually Chinese 5d or above, but sometimes more even with us, would play with us in the apartment. We also had visits from players from Sweden, USA and Taiwan during the 2 months, and ran into a French player at the go club.

Tai Chi, swimming, pool, going out for shish-kebab, tennis and the gym were regular evening activities, in addition to playing go, that added some routine to the adventure.

The first weeks, the European Cup in football also offered a nice change of pace, and gave us an excuse to go for karaoke. Karaoke, quickly feared by most, seems to be a favourite pastime of Chinese, and would probably become one of mine too if I could only find a nice karaoke place in Sweden. Maybe I have to move to China! As for the football, we lost interest somewhat when Sweden lost to Holland in the quarterfinals. We watched the game in a karaoke bar, with 100 rooms for karaoke, and 100 lanes for bowling. Quite a sight.

The weekends held sightseeing activities. the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and others, all are sights that any guide book would recommend. After 7 weekends, most had seen the most important sights, but I admit to not seeing the Summer Palace yet. However, I went to the Shihua caves, the zoo, an amusement park, and several other temple parks during the time in Beijing. Actually, I am somewhat tired of temples now. The dolphin show at the zoo was a highlight, and so was the Great Wall at Simatai (except the farmers/“guides”/annoying saleswomen) that tried to accompany us to the top of the route.

There was also a go club nearby where we lived, where usually someone went during the afternoon. I didn’t keep count, but I think Daniel was the one who went there most times, and he became somewhat of an expert (if he wasn’t already) in what we call “street style”, a style of go where every trick in the book is allowed, including making noises, moving stones on the board, and trying to play multiple stones in one turn. This style could also be seen when we went out on the street for “street go”, to an even greater extent. Just bring a board and sit down somewhere with a lot of people, and you’re all set for street go. We tried this during the last week of the first month, but the truth is that most of the street players were a little too weak for the stronger players of our group.

On the other hand, playing “panel go” where you discuss the moves within the group before making them, is great fun, and works well both in street go and Internet games.

We also went for some trips to nicer go clubs, where this kind of tricks would be frowned upon. The Sihuying go club was probably the most exclusive one in Beijing. We were there to visit on the 10th and 18th of July, and became tourist attractions there as everywhere else. On the first occasion, the owner showed us her win against Nie Weiping in a fast game competition, and Ma Xiaochun came there to visit the 2nd time. Just as we went back to Sweden, a new club also opened in Soho, one of the more exclusive areas of Beijing, and we went there for the opening.

Near the end of the visit, the Asian Cup in football was also decided. China went through the group and beat Iraq and Iran in the quarter and semi-finals to play Japan in the final. Sadly, they lost by 2-1 after a hand goal from one of the Japan players. Still, a 2nd place finish is a great result for China. I only saw the quarter-final game, but Bao Yun watched the final, and others in our group watched the qualifier and semi-final games.

Some more forgetten events follow, in somewhat chronological order…

We visited the university, to watch some pro games from the Chinese city league. Unfortunately, we just barely got to see the pros, but we got good comments on the games.

We visited the Chinese go association for a fast game pro tournament, seeing famous players such as Gu Li, Chang Hao, Liu Xihe, altogether 32 tables and 64 pros. Many of them had very entertaining playing styles, perhaps somewhat a peculiarity of the early rounds and the fast game format.

Football and basketball games. We lost to the Ni Weiping go school twice in football, but got a revenge on some of Bao Yuns friends in basketball and football, on Bao Yuns birthday!

We visited the Chinese go association again for a friendship game between China and Taiwan. And, in fact, I met the same Taiwan player as I met at the Pair Go Championship in Tokyo last fall. During this visit we also had an opportunity to play some of the Taiwan players. On Thursday, the strongest Taiwan player and some players from Tsinghua University joined us for dinner after some friendly games in the apartments.

We went to IKEA to try Swedish food. It didn’t really taste like back home!

A lot of movies were shown on the DVD, and some TV series. 24 was shown as a marathon, and I am happy I didn’t see it. Many bad movies were shown, especially Most valuable primate, Catwoman and Sleepover. Some good ones were Spirited away and Intolerable cruelty. The DVD shops were everywhere on the street, selling DVDs for around 7 kr each.

Conclusion

As a whole, I enjoyed the trip very much, and would not hesitate to go back to China. In fact, several people in our group are considering studying Chinese, or even moving to China. Some even found Chinese girl friends, which made the trip back to Sweden harder. I already look forward to the trip next summer, and expect to know a fair bit of Chinese by then.

Some people endured, and studied go the whole time, with interruptions for eating, sleeping and sightseeing. But for many, there were other temptations. Girls, in some cases, going out shopping, seeing more of Beijing, or just relaxing with a DVD. Some people even got tired of the Chinese food and started going for Pizza Hut or McDonalds more and more often.

In any case, I think I can safely say that for most of us this vacation will be hard to forget.

Lots of people improved a lot in go, not least Jenny, Sven, Daniel, Oskar, Nils, Johannes, Fredrik. Jenny deserves a special mention for going from somewhere around 18k to 8k in 2 months, despite spending a lot of time shopping. Others went from around 5-8k to a solid Swedish 2k level. I think I improved too, and hope to play well at the future Swedish tournaments.

Some people took great photos, especially Araldo. He even made me consider buying a better camera, so I can’t blame my equipment next time. Hopefully, his pictures will be passed around to show the people we met along the way, as well as the sights we saw.

Some made sure everyone had a good time. Sergio and Eivind were two of them. Eivind was probably the expert in making Chinese friends, and expects to go back and study Chinese.

Some try to make pro. Best of luck to Lasse and his family!

Some people are good at drinking beer. I think Aapo and Kalle would have given Oskar and Harry a run for their money had they only stayed longer.

Some dare to join this trip despite most participants being Swedish. Lasse, Mogens, Stian, Eivind, Kalle, Aapo, Sergio, Araldo, and Andrew. I feel sorry for these brave people, especially Sergio, Araldo and Andrew who couldn’t understand a word of Swedish from the beginning. But they seemed to enjoy themselves anyway! Next year, we hope for a much more international trip.

And we made lots of friends, especially within the group, including our teachers.

Zai jien!