Walked the Mountains, Chased the Dragons

I have just returned from a 10-day excursion to the south of China with a group of....feng shui fanatics. I certainly do not qualify as one yet; in fact, I stuck out like a sore thumb being a newbie and therefore the most blur one of the group.


But it was definitely interesting catching snippets of feng shui tips and wisdom from a very eclectic group. There was a Taiqi master from Slovenia, a yogi, a few practicing Daoists, a wushu champion, and an ex-Indian astrologer, among others. Then there's me, a plain old HR practitioner. :)


As the purpose of this particular trip was to understand the "works" of the Grandmasters, we descended into the rural areas with feng shui associations. For many villagers, we were probably the only foreigners they have ever met. My Caucasian classmates were usually followed by a small gaggle of locals gawking at them, especially when they whipped out their luopans (feng shui compass) to take measurements of the directions and locations of the various water and mountain features.

View from the one of the mountains near the cave where the founder of the Daoist Zhen sect successfully created his immortality elixir. The landforms in the area are supposed to encourage spirituality and help him to achieve his goals.

P/S In feng shui terms, mountains are referred to as "dragons", hence the title of this post. Mel, I swear I have nothing to do with opium...