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Master Fu in Yangshuo

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  • Master Fu in Yangshuo

    Well finlayy i'm in China. Here's some entries from my blog site (http://www.blogmark.co.za/index.php?q=blog/2410 ) i thought might be interesting to read...

    _______________________________________________

    ok, update on life as i know it. I was on the way to the Tai Chi school I was scheduled to go to and saw another, so I thought I'd pop in and just check it out. Turns out this is the school for Fu NenBing who is one of the 10 Great Tai Chi Treasures of China! No ways! Could you believe it guy?! Anyway, he teaches Westerners, which i'd been told he doesn't... So I'm spending a week there.

    The school is about 500 more a week more than I wanted to pay but i thought it's worth it.

    There's a guy from denmark who i might rent a room with in the rural; chinese version of Beverly Hills 90210. Well, not at all, but kinda... anyway, it'll cost 220 for both of us for the month! Sure the toilets outside but hey, beat that!

    Anyway, right now i've got a room all to myself, which is kinda cool.

    I went for a 6 hour cycle through the rural areas surrounding Yangshuo. Such awesome people! Really friendly and curious plus dirt shit poor! I got some great pics... i must find some way to upload them somewhere... chinese kids are so cute... and the old are so... OLD!

    Everyone else has buck teeth.

    The mosquitos! damn! There swarms of them! I mean, like a 1 or 2 hundred just hanging out waiting for you to walk past.

    so i had my first day of training in like 4 months! it was great. 5 hours! really fun and i learnt so much! a world of difference to Simon. he's not bad i guess but this guy is... well one of the 10 treasures! that's like getting nelson mandela to teach you how to be a sweet old man!

    Last night me and a french dude i'd met on the bus from Shenzhen had a night on the town before he headed back to HK. Well, a night on the town was eating at a side market food place. Seating for a few hundred. I had a Yangshuo speciality. minced pork and snail stuffed in snail shell. It was bloody brilliant!

    _______________________________________________

    So i wake at around 8am. Go down for breakfast, which varies from noodles with minced pork to sweet buns. 9:30 we start training. Usually there's a 30 minuute warm-up. 10 odd minutes of opening the joints and then either kicks or basic steps.

    From here we do the first repition of the 18 form for the day. That takes 3 minutes. By the end of it i'm already building up a sizeable sweat. Then it's on to Lao Jia Yi Lu. 74 movements. Each with from 3 to 10 components. It takes a total of 10 minutes. Then chances are there's another repition of the 18 form and another Loa Jia. at this point we have usually have a good stretch and a 10 minute break.

    The rest of the session is devoted to movement correction. There's so much detail in each move, in each component. While i've learnt an astounding amount there's even more to take on.

    At 12 we break. 12:30 it's lunch. that's usually 5 dishes and rice. we have rice with everything, at every meal. then it's nap time. i take off my totally dreanched shirt and fall into bed to rise at 4 for 4:30 training. More Loa Jia after the joing opening and warm-up. This session ends at 7. Dinner, perhaps a game of chinese chess and then back to bed.

    Repeat for 6 days a week.

    _______________________________________________

    There's a story of how two students taught by Chen Fa-Ke asked how long it would take to master Tai Chi. He replied that in 3 years you can expect some success. In 5 moderate success and in 10 great success. One student was already highly accomplished in WuShu and said that he would train twice as hard and do it in half the time. The other was prepared to wait 10 years. Chen Fa-Ke replied that the latter would be the most successful practitioner. Tai Chi can not be rushed.

    Funny thing is that i read this on a day i decided to take a morning off. I'd actually changed my attitude to training a bit. When i got here if i missed an hour from over sleeping i would feel so guilty. But now I've taken the attitude that i mustn't push myself too hard. Each thing will come in it's time. And then i read this story. The universe smiled.

    So finally it's an off day again! Come Saturday my legs are so sore and my body so tired... it screams for Sunday. Even though we only get one day break it sure is welcome.

    Because this has been the "golden week" (a holiday week in china) Yangshuo has been pumping so i been avoiding town. But we get tons of tourists come past the school. They sit and watch us do form. Strange to see. Chinese people watching foreigners do Tai Chi... We even had some German guy come past at lunch and ask what time the show was!

    This week Fu has been teaching with grandmaster Chen ZhengLie in Shenzhen so we had his younger brother teach us. I learnt a small simple Kung Fu form called Wu Bu Chuan (5 position fist). That was fun. Some variety. Making me think I'd like to learn a bit more Kung Fu while here. It's also a lot simpler than tai chi and seems to come really naturally for me. Though it tends to pain in areas Tai Chi doesn't affect.

    Things here move slowly yet time seems to fly. i can't believe I've been here for a month already. As my time nears to leave i think about extending it. But in some ways i feel it's like leaving my real life back home. There some days the pain is too much, or I've just changed into my third dry shirt of the day and think i can't take this heat anymore. I have decided though that at the very least I'll do my 5 months. And who knows what tomorrow will bring...

    Anyway, I'm gonna start teaching English next month. 2 hours a day with the Outdoor School. Basically you go to a park or cafe with a handful of students and teach them some words. They get some practice and i get 2000 a month. We'll see how it affects my training... but i need to make some extra cash. Unless you wanna subsidise me?


    There are only 10 types of people in this world.
    Those that understand binary and those that don't.


  • #2
    "Yangshuo",
    That wouldn't happen to be the place about 15 min. bus ride south of Guilin that is fammed for the miny mountains poking out of the rice fields and is a tourist / backpacker paradise is it ?

    That's actualy my next travel destination whaile I'm here. If that is the plac I'm thinking of...
    "Winners turn to losers, losers are forgotten..." - A Tribe Called Quest

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    • #3
      I have pictures of Yangshou in the Photo Library. If I remember correctly, it's at the end of the boat ride that you take through Guilin. Also have photos in the web site proper, in the China section.
      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

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      • #4
        An hour bus outta Guilin

        Actually closer to an hour and a half... And yeah Doc, it's just next to the Li River. The school is in a small village (Shi Ban Qiao) that's a 20 minute walk from downtown Yangshuo, which can get loud and a bit tiresome with all the tourists. The great thing about the place is that you can get by with very little Chinese as people here are used to foreigners. And yeah, while being small (40 000 people i think...) you can get pretty much everything.

        Fu should have a site up and running soon. I'l post the details when i got 'em.


        There are only 10 types of people in this world.
        Those that understand binary and those that don't.

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        • #5
          I'm a little jealous ! That's some place to be living and practicing !!!
          "Winners turn to losers, losers are forgotten..." - A Tribe Called Quest

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          • #6
            Hi Renato,

            Are you still at Master Fu's School? Because I just bought tickets to get to Guilin to train at the school.

            It would be great if you could tell them I am coming. I will arrive saturday 25th of august at Guilin airport and I was wondering if they could arrange for a taxi to pick me up and reservate a bed for me at the school.

            Any practical info would be very appreciated.

            If you've left already, maybe you've got their email???

            Thanks in advance

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            • #7
              Hi Corona

              oops, i've not been at the site for a while so excuse my late reply. You'll also notice the site (www.masterfu.net) is down. The chinese government, in all their wisdom has decided that Fu should pay them a special levy becasue he's registered a URL that represents a company. Anyway... it should be live again soon.

              Right, to answer your mail...

              I'm still at the school. Right now i'm taking private lessons with Fu. I'm living in Yangshuo but will move back to the school in September. I'll see him this week and let him know you coming.

              At the end of august most of the students and teachers are off to Hunan for the international competition. They should be back around the 26th or 28th of August. There will be space available for you.

              A taxi from Guilin? You crazy? that will cost a fortune. You can get a bus to Yangshuo for 10 Yuan. Expect the trip to last around 1 hour. The bus station is near the train station. When you get to the bus station the drivers to Yangshuo will find you. No worries there! Call me when you get here. If Master Fu's not back i can put you up for a night or you could get a hotel for about 60 Yuan a night.

              My number in China is 13557272993.

              Later
              Renato


              There are only 10 types of people in this world.
              Those that understand binary and those that don't.

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              • #8
                hey guys just wondering where this school was located i stayed in yangshou for a week last year and trained at a place in the centre of town up a little alley i think it was called shaolin bohdi zen or something similar to that. the guy in there was training a few forigners and was a bit funny with me when i turned up to ask him about his shaolin lineage and what he practiced however his dad which was a very old man was also runing the school and doing qi gong classes was real nice and still loved kung fu and qi gong and practiced every day which was great to see of an old person. so i ended up doing a qi gong class with his dad i think he was called sifu gao and a kung fu class with his son which was a strange version of hong fist possibly a southern version all in all it was an ok work out but more just a great experience training in the mid summer heat of yangshou. has anyone else trained here if so how did you find it?

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                • #9
                  Master Fu's school only opened in December of 2006. Prior to that he was teaching in Nanning.

                  The school (Master Fu's) is in Shi Ban Qiao, a small village about 15 minutes walk from downtown Yangshuo. Yangshuo is very noisy and packed with tourists yet Shi Ban Qiao is really quiet. That's what's great about the location. It has it all.

                  Yeah, the Budizen school is in Yangshuo. They teach their own family style. Mostly gong fu but they do offer tai chi. The father is no longer teaching as far as i know... the two sons have taken over. In terms of lineage... well i have no idea where his father was taught. Going out on a limb, i'd assume it was from HIS father.
                  Last edited by renato; 08-03-2007, 05:15 AM.


                  There are only 10 types of people in this world.
                  Those that understand binary and those that don't.

                  Comment

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