Beijing

[kreese]

Looking for a gong fu class for a friend. She has quite a bit of Korean & Japanese martial arts experience, but in terms of gong fu she will need to start from near the beginning. She is pretty fit, highly intelligent, and has that extra something that could make her great if she catches the gong fu bug.

I am trying to hook her up with Jarek to talk about options. I am also encouraging her to check out Chen Yu.

Other than that, what would you good people suggest? The best would be an internal system with a nice set of basic stuff to get noobs up to speed. Other than that, maybe even some Long Fist or Shaolin to get fit fast.

I appreciate your help.

[edededed]

Are you kidding? There is tons of stuff in Beijing to choose from...

1. Chuojiaofanziquan - this is a fast, high-kicking style that is quite cool (and even starts with a weird "ghey" stance! (See here: http://www.canadaeastwushu.com/styles/CJFQ1.html)). Some famous teachers of this style include Hong Zhitian, Wang Heling, and Di Guoyong.
2. Baguazhang - an obvious choice, as Beijing is the baguazhang center of the world. There is a whole barrel of teachers there, including Xu Shixi (Yin style), Zhu Baozhen (Yin style), Sun Zhijun (Cheng style), Liu Jingru (Cheng style), Di Guoyong (Liang style), Wen Dasheng (Fan style), and many others. (Xu Shixi teaches some sets of luohanquan (Zhu may as well), too.)

[shenme]

Di Guoyong teaches Liang style bagua!?!?

I did not know that, I knew he taught Xingyiquan

Doesn't Tian Ke Yan teach Yin Yang Baguazhang in Beijing as well?

And I think it is Wang Mao Zhai who teaches Northern Wu style there too.

[edededed]

Wang Maozhai learned from Quan You... so no, he does not teach in Beijing (anymore), although you can find his grand-disciple Li Bingci there.

Di Guoyong does teach Liang style baguazhang, and from what I have seen of it on YouTube, it looks very nice to me!

[kreese]

Yeah, the thing is there is so much in Beijing it is hard to know where to start. I want something traditional for her, with a good blend of qigong and more active stuff. I am actually leaning towards baguazhang, but a good fighting taijiquan class would be good too. She sits in an office like 12-16 hours a day, so she needs to have her ass kicked when she does have time to go to class i.e. a good workout.

Any contact info for teachers or class locations would be much appreciated. I believe she can read Chinese, so Chinese webpages are cool too.

Thanks.

[kreese]

Ah...does anyone have Tomasz' contact info? Feel free to PM or email to [email protected].

[shenme]

Wang Maozhai learned from Quan You... so no, he does not teach in Beijing (anymore), although you can find his grand-disciple Li Bingci there.

Di Guoyong does teach Liang style baguazhang, and from what I have seen of it on YouTube, it looks very nice to me!

You know, I knew that Li Bingci was the one teaching Northern Wu in Beijing but apparently yesterday my brain was on vacation.

I didn't know Di Guoyong taught Bagua however, I will have to check that out on YouTube, thanks

[edededed]

I saw some nice videos of Di doing bagua a while ago on YouTube, but recently was unable to find them again... It may be that the original poster(s) took them down, or else I just couldn't find them again

[TaoBoxer]

The Yao Brothers. PM me for a phone number.

Lewitt

[kreese]

She might not be ready for that, but I'll keep it in mind. Thanks, Lewitt.

[Chanchu]

Chuojiaofanziquan- lots of clips up on you tube of this very interesting system if your friend is young and will be in bejing for a longer while seems this would be a good one to investigate..
Clips I saw had some skilled hard training young ladies doing some very great looking kicks that looked like they would be very powerful... Be fun to get into a rare old system like that when young and dig into it...

Of course can't go wrong with Ba gwa from a good teacher....

[kreese]

At this point I just hope she starts something. The ponytail-to-sifu ratio in Beijing will probably skyrocket post-Olympics.

[edededed]

Well, what would YOU learn if you were in Beijing? If you are really enthusiastic about something, you might be able to persuade her to go and do it!

[kreese]

Good question. It's a tough choice, really. If I could, I'd just stay in Taiwan for a decade or so and concentrate on xingyi/bagua with a pinch of taiji tui shou and whatnot. But I'd love to come back to studying taiji seriously at some point. The only names I can think of in Beijing that really tempt me are Chen Yu, Feng Zhiqiang (for qigong/neigong), and Mr. Xu (blacktaoist's teacher). If I were in Shanghai, I'd study under Shen Tiegen in a heartbeat. Or Qian Xiaohong (?) the xinyi liuhe master. From all accounts he is supposed to be very experienced fighter, but from his Tai Chi Mag article he also does taiji and knows lots of cool internal theory.

So I guess my recommendations to my friend would be Chen Yu and Mr. Xu. I gave her Tomasz's info. Hopefully she will contact him and have a good conversation about what's what. She's smart enough to choose her own path.

[edededed]

Ah - a lot of exceptional people in your list there I think she could learn a lot from any of them (well, Feng Zhiqiang is getting old now, so maybe Chen Yu or Xu Shixi would be better). Tomasz's own teacher Zhu Baozhen knows a thing or two as well.