Any trustworthy schools in China?

[remedial]

You will need serious visas to study and stay in China.

Are you going to be working? teaching English?

Seconding this, If your English is good enough you could easily get a job working under 20 hours a week at a university. You'll have plenty of free time to practice kungfu and you'll be able to afford practicing it for as long as you want.

It's probably your best bet if you don't have a ton of money saved already.

[daishi]

I know nothing about CMA. My buddy, from my JMA school, is very interested in CMA and plans to live in China and train. Last year he spent a couple months in China visiting various training locations. I think he decided on a place called Wudan. If I understood him right, he liked it because they were the most eccentric. Not sure if that translates to good. I will try to inquire further. I will see him tomorrow or Wed and let you know the other places he went and what he thinks, and why.

[teffera]

Seconding this, If your English is good enough you could easily get a job working under 20 hours a week at a university. You'll have plenty of free time to practice kungfu and you'll be able to afford practicing it for as long as you want.

It's probably your best bet if you don't have a ton of money saved already.

That would be a great idea! It's just that I wanna know if there is any hope of doing this or not...

Thanks for the tip!

I really want to study martial arts.

I know nothing about CMA. My buddy, from my JMA school, is very interested in CMA and plans to live in China and train. Last year he spent a couple months in China visiting various training locations. I think he decided on a place called Wudan. If I understood him right, he liked it because they were the most eccentric. Not sure if that translates to good. I will try to inquire further. I will see him tomorrow or Wed and let you know the other places he went and what he thinks, and why.

Hello daishi, did you find anything? Thanks!

I'm curious as to why.

Well, I read on Wikipedia that Northern style is kind of based on kicks, while Southern style is based on upper body techniques.


So I guess the predominant opinion here is that it's useless?

[W. Rabbit]

So I guess the predominant opinion here is that it's useless?

That depends on what "it" you are talking about.

If "it" means traveling to China to learn kung fu, you can find it closer than that.

[Mor Sao]

There is really no need to go to China.

There are such a plethora of teachers with skills here in North America, Canada, and the UK that are much easier to meet and train with.

Also why give the communists any more money to keep up with their craptacular regime?

[tangshou]

Most of the 'academies' or live-in training places are most likely tourist traps that will over-charge and over-train you, provide poor living conditions, but not teach you to fight well. You might be able to find a good one but I'm not aware of any.

As remedial said, if you want to stay longer you could teach English while training. You could make enough to cover your costs and train indefinitely. I know one good teacher in Suzhou (near Shanghai) if you are interested. Pretty much every city has legit teachers, but your best bet to find them is local word-of-mouth and going to parks. Hard to do over the internet. Look around forums and people's personal stories to find a learning experience that sounds like something you would want. Here are a couple of examples.
http://www.plumpub.com/info/Articles/art_studycha.htm
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezin...hp?article=575

[Taijineigong]

Hi,

I trained with a bunch of teachers around China, and found a lot of similar stuff to what the other members are posting.

Namely, a lot of the famous / infamous schools or teachers are basically a "tourist trap" and charge outrageous prices --- so much so, esp. considering many of them are more familiar with Euro exchange rates than USD --- that you'd be better off staying Stateside than wasting your time & money.

However, I did find some less known teachers, and one of them in particular, in Kunming, Yunnan, China. If you look him up --- and know some Mandarin --- you can save a lot of money by contacting him directly: Google for Yang Cheng Long in Kunming zoo.

Or, you can also hit up my buddy Josh Pollack, who runs the Yunnan Educational and Health Services (which you can also Google because I can't post links yet). On the YEHS site (yehs.org) you can see pictures of the teacher, Yang Laoshi ... he is badass, and I have only seen a couple teachers in the USA who can compare.

He grew up in Kung Fu temples, studied the external styles as a kid (rigorously), later became a Bagua champion, and finally moved on to Tai Chi in his 30's I think ... when a Wu Style master knocked him out cold.

If you want more info, you can PM me or something (but I am still n00b at Bullshido, not sure how it works).

Peace, and good luck.

[Lindz]

How do you become a bagua champion? Does bagua have it's own competition circuit?

[Taijineigong]

How do you become a bagua champion? Does bagua have it's own competition circuit?

No, he is a 68 year old Chinese man. When I said "champion" I really meant he had won lots of challenge matches. Probably it is the wrong word there, my bad.

In those days, challenge matches were the norm when one martial artist met another martial artist. Before the days of Bullshido, this was the only way to be sure. Personally, I am glad we have Bullshido now.

Yang Laoshi had stories like: one time, when he knocked the full fronts out (top & bottom) from some other famous IMA teacher, who later became his friend & still visits for tea when in town. This was at a challenge match at a railroad work-site during the cultural revolution (when teaching / practicing martial arts was illegal).

The more-or-less reverse of the above story was how he got into tai chi in the first place ... when a famous Wu style master had a challenge match with him.

The way he told the story, he basically said: "The guy disappeared, and then I woke up on the ground with him standing over me saying: 'Wow, you were out for a while!'"

That is the guy who immediately thereafter became his Wu style taijiquan teacher.

Keep in mind, even death matches were not unusual in China as little as 40-60 years ago (depending on region / city).

A "competition circuit" is a newer invention, and was mostly imported to China from the West when they wanted to be viewed as more "civilized" (my own perception, not too familiar w/ the exact historical events that led CMA moving more & more away from the whole death match convention).

Yang Laoshi even has several stories about when he & his wife were attacked by gangs of bandits ... because I guess that was also pretty common in China until really recently. Probably in some places it still is ... I certainly got a lot of my sh-t stolen when I was there. My Chinese gf said, when I got my scooter jacked: "Of course! If it is in China, and it can move, it gets stolen."

Anyway, like I said, I guess I should have used another word other than "champion" probably. Like "consistently successful ass kicker" or something.

But thanks for asking! It is a good clarification.

[hungryjoe]

teffera,

Research the requirements for obtaining a long term (yearly) Chinese visa. If you're from the US, expect to pay double what the rest of the world pays.

Health wise, you're probably better off not wandering around China. If you're determined, do your research first. Have access to plenty of money if needed. Corruption is rampant, especially so in the larger westernized cities.

The Chinese people, overall, are good people. The government, at all levels, sucks balls.