Who are the most respectable teachers in China?

[edededed]

Baguazhang is very difficult to learn - it would help a lot if you decided to live for the next 5-10 years or so in a place that happens to have a good baguazhang instructor living there.

[SatoriChild]

There actually is a well respected teacher about an hour from my house (But only when I'm home - the summer months of the year) I can start with. Once I head out west for graduate school there may be more teachers there - so we will see. If I have to, I'll practice circular walking for 10 years until I get a consistent teacher .

[bailewen]

This is kind of a trick question. It is impossible to answer with any sort of objectivity. You see, the real question, to answer a question with a question is, by who and for what?

It's not really possible to answer your question without wading through some serious politics. I would never give my opinion on something like this. . .publicly. I can't give my (complete and uncensored) opinion without stepping on some toes and pissing a lot of people off.

Going to Beijing is a mixed blessing. I am not sure you can find the best stuff there. It's all about the ratio. The ratio of "pearls" to "fish eyes" as the proverb goes, "It's hard to spot a real pearl in a bowl of fish eyes". Along with Beijing's fame as the heart of Baguazhang, it also has an enormous cottage industry of selling kungfu to foreigners. In a smaller place, like Xi'an or Taiyuan, someplace in Shanxi maybe, I think it may be actually easier to get the real goods. Harder to find a teacher but easier to find a good one. Beijing is also pretty expensive compared to some place like Luoyang or Yongnian. Same thing for Shanghai which I would guess has a better crop of Taiji people than Bagua from what I have seen.

I personally feel that Xi'an is a real diamond in the rough but then, I live(d) in Xi'an so I am biased. It has been called "The second Chen Jiagou" by many because of the large number of Chen experts who were relocated there for political reasons in years past, reasons nothing to do with Kung Fu, just a lot of people fled Henan for Shaanxi during the Japanese invasion and more still in later years.

For a 3 month visit, Beijing is still probably best though as it could take more than 3 months just to convince one of the more traditional guys in the smaller towns to teach you anything at all. I spent nearly 6 months getting accepted my my own Shifu. (he's opened up a lot since then though.)

My last word of advice is to just let go of bagua as a goal. Focus more on finding a teacher who's skill you respect and who's personality you like. In the long run, those qualities FAR outweigh the value of learning a particular style. Heck, I had never even really heard of Baji at all when I was asked if I wanted to learn it. The name vaguely rang a bell. Something about royal guards or something I had read years ago in Inside Kung Fu.

However it turns out though, I wish you "peace on the road with the wind at you back" in your journey.

[Leishen]

My last word of advice is to just let go of bagua as a goal. Focus more on finding a teacher who's skill you respect and who's personality you like. In the long run, those qualities FAR outweigh the value of learning a particular style

100% agree on that.
You may begin to find something you think you like and you may end finding something completely different...

[edededed]

On the other hand, some people do find what they hoped to learn, too (like me!)