Ben

One of the reasons to come to China was to visit Ben for his birthday.

Last year he bought a ticket, got a visa, and set off one November day with a backpack to enrol in a chinese school of martial arts.

In Qufu - the birthplace of Confucius. Which is a very small town indeed. (I would call it a one-horse town but I have seen seven or eight horses here at least)

The school is about half an hour's bus ride outside the town, in the middle of fields and by a mountain with a temple on top.

He's the youngest student at the school but he seems to be having a good time, and he's got amazingly good at various forms of martial art.

Here he is just about to show me the (click link for video) sword form.