Where all that cool stuff is to be found…. To answer Ed’s question in a previous comment, the shop is in the town of Xiang Shan, about a 30-minute bus ride from Tsinghua University. The prices are great because it’s a factory shop – the weapons sold around China and the world are actually manufactured just outside this beautiful park!

This is the street it’s on:

On another note, after a chat with Carlos on MSN yesterday, I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about yiquan…?

2 Comments »

1. 

   Awesome! Would love to go to that factory and buy some rare bagua weapons one of these days (Hope I can bring them back, though…)

   Yiquan? What about it? Good no-nonsense style, the lack of long forms helps students concentrate on the standing and single exercises; mechanics are somewhat different from both baguazhang and xingyiquan.

   Comment by Edward — March 9, 2008 @ 12:39 pm

2. 

   You could do that intensive 30 day thing. But there’s an easier more practical way in your particular case. Just go to Master Yao’s Zongxun Wuguan (dojo) once a week, or even the Nanguan Park once a week (weekends, morning/aft on Sat.; morning only on Sun), or even just once a month. Then Master Yao will teach you a few basic zhuang’s each time and you can work on those during the following week(s). You don’t need to learn a whole lot of the fancier zhuangs right off the bat, their emphasis is, or should be, on putting in time on the most basic things.

   So to me a “30 day Intensive” doesn’t quite fit the long-term focus. Don’t worry about language, Master Yao is extremely experienced at conveying his stuff with body language, that’s a great strong point of his. Anyway there’s often somebody around with at least rudimentary English.

   Another thing you might want to just look into when you get to Shanghai is the Liu He Ba Fa of Master Qian Zhaohong, who’s a scary good combat master while totally emphasizing relaxation and qi. By the way, he has his own take on whether static (or micro-movement) long standing is good for you or not.

   http://masterqian.multiply.com/
   http://neigong.net/2006/06/14/qian-zhao-hong/

   Comment by Tabby Cat — March 17, 2008 @ 1:22 am

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