VictoЯi〆維墮離亞♀

WITH more than 25 years' experience of practicing and teaching yoga, Australian guru Lance Schuler returned to Shanghai last week to spearhead a yoga teacher training program at Y+ Yoga Center.

The program - a partnership between Y+ Yoga Center and Schuler's Integrated South Pacific Yoga Academy, one of the world's top yoga training schools - aims at providing the best yoga teacher training classes in China.

The classes attracted 30 female students including five Westerners.

"We need more teaching to maintain the momentum of students and produce teachers for the global market," says Schuler, INSPYA's director and owner. "I love teaching and I'm glad to find that yoga intrigues them so much."

Back in October last year when Schuler first offered teacher classes at Y+ Yoga Center, he was still new to the city. But this time the environment was much more familiar and comfortable for him.

"How good it is to live and work with Chinese where yoga is working," he says. "Y+ yoga is professionally run, it attracts students and provides facilities. The guys behind the scenes are all very professional which is why it is the INSPYA's only partner in China."

Delivering workshops across the world, Schuler says he was selective about which yoga centers his teaching program linked with. He says Harry Yu, founder and executive president of Y+ Yoga Center, is perceptive and has the same understanding of yoga as himself.

"The yoga center gives students quality yoga practice," Yu says. "I believe that only through a strong team of international teachers and the training of new teachers can we ensure a good experience for practitioners."

Although there are differences in culture and physical bodies, yoga communities worldwide are not isolated.

"It's a big community. Yoga won't stop. The mass market is growing," says Schuler after attending a recent Hong Kong Yoga conference. "Standing on one foot makes one attentive and focused. When you stand on two feet, it's easy. To enjoy life is to experience hardship and suffering and to feel the body suffer."

While a growing number of Shanghai yoga teachers have been trained at Y+ Yoga Center, a senior level workshop will be offered in September.

Y+ Yoga Center hopes more and more yoga teachers look to improve themselves - and enjoy life - through talking and learning from world-class masters, such as Schuler.

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Rebuilding temples, rescuing relics

Victoria Fei @ 2008-07-21 13:12

EARTHQUAKE reconstruction is underway on Sichuan's 2,000-year-old Erwang (Two Kings) Temple. The magnificent complex was a memorial to the man and his son who built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, writes Fei Lai.

The May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province not only claimed thousands of lives and wrecked homes, but also reduced ancient temples and historic sites to rubble. Rebuilding has begun.

The famed Dujiangyan Irrigation System was not seriously damaged in the 8.0-magnitude quake, but the surrounding area sustained serious damage. In some cases, total reconstruction is required.

The entrance gate of 2,000-year-old Qinyanlou Tower, the best viewing spot overlooking the irrigation system, was destroyed. The stone tower collapsed.

Also reduced to rubble were a stage for performing operas, halls, staircases, pavilions and outer walls.

A stone's throw away, the 2,000-year-old Erwang (Two Kings) Temple is littered with debris. The temple was built as a memorial to Li Bing and his son who built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. The main gate is broken, many halls of red brick and green tiles have collapsed.

The temple complex covers 12,000 square meters; around one-third of it were seriously damaged; much of the rest sustained lesser damage.

The magnificent temple on the serene banks of the Minjiang River was rebuilt several times, the last time in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Reconstruction of the Two Kings Temple kicked off on June 30, the beginning of rebuilding Sichuan Province relic sites by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

It is expected to take two to three years, according to the reconstruction team. The work is dangerous because the temple structures are on the slope of Yulei Mountain, and landslides are possible.

The wooden building complex conforms to the traditional standard of temple design, except that it does not follow a north-south axis.

Relying upon existing natural geography and de-emphasizing axial symmetry, it used to be overlapped and staggered in upper and lower structures.

The temple was divided into two sections - gardens in the east and palaces and halls in the west.

In the Guanlan Pavilion above the complex, the words of irrigation system builder Li Bing are inscribed: "When the river flows in zigzag, cut a straight channel; when the riverbed is wide and shallow, dig it deeper."

Each year, residents make offerings to Li Bing and his son on the 24th and 26th days of the sixth month on the lunar calendar to express their gratitude. Building the irrigation system and taming the rivers ended annual flooding, saved lives and enabled the region to flourish.

"It was terribly hard to go through the first several days of the quake. There were casualties and ruins everywhere," says Judy Luo, a hotel waitress in Dujiangyan. "As a local resident, I feel it so important to resume tourism here. I hope it will take on a brand-new look in several years."