Shi YanZhang's School in China

[shaolinstylee]

xKxFxCx, do some browsing, you'll find a lot of the info you are looking for in the shaolin school section (this section).

wow, four xes in one name.... thats like, wow even for vegas standards.

[doc]

Decheng tends to spend time teaching the foreigners; he also has some good coaches that get involved. They have around 150 students, including foreigners, on the average. His facility has hot shower and western toilets. His current price is $45 a day, which includes a hotel room (not the school), all food and training. For people that I send to him, it's $1200 a month.

The Shaolin Temple Wushu Guan used to charge $80 a day, which included a nightmare of a hotel. (rare running water, no heat, and all the rats that you could possibly want).

[dogchow108]

xKxFxCx, do some browsing, you'll find a lot of the info you are looking for in the shaolin school section (this section).

wow, four xes in one name.... thats like, wow even for vegas standards.

XKentuckyXfriedXchickenX

[SHAOLINFOREVER!]

DeCheng

Geez, DeCheng's school sounds great but is mighty expensive, nothing I can afford. But I guess that is what you can expect because of DeCheng's fam and rep.

[xKungxFuxCuddlex]

XKentuckyXfriedXchickenX

Yep you have found the secret meaning of my name, congratz.

Anywho, yeah, De cheng is a little out of our price range, perhaps when we hit it big as acupuncture-ists. I've read the Bai He Survival Rules, they are very very nice. It mentions that the good weather lasts between spring and fall and to visit at those times and i was wonderin if you guys had any tips for us fools who will be there in the winter?

[doc]

Yea.

Don't go. Or go to Thailand.

Winter in Shaolin is miserable. And, the schools (and town, lol) "close" for Chinese New Year. For January and February things are dead.

Leave in early November, return in March.

And Mortal, I'll be back home late September. We'll work something out for you at the school, no problem. Unless our new Chinese instructor finds some idiot little girl to marry.

[mortal]

Doc

Cool that sounds perfect. Maybe I can find a stupid little girl for me to marry.

[wen]

Hi, can anyone tell me besides gongfu what else can you learn at yan zhangs school? and can you tell me what is the price in yuan? im looking to stay for long term a year to start with is there any discounts if you pay a certain amount upfront? and is there a school shop where you can buy uniforms and weapons?

[mortal]

What else would you want to learn? I hope you know all you will be doing is modern wushu. Over and over and over and over. By the time you have a good enough base to learn the fighting stuff you will be either too old or you'll run out of money.

[zachsan]

ever the optimist.

[wen]

Just was wondering if they teach chinese laungage or buddism and any diffrent types of martial arts like xing yi or bagua?

[doc]

Welll, be careful of what you hear.

Many of these schools might advertise Chinese language instruction. In my experience, their attempts are pitiful, if present at all, to say the least. The people that they use to "translate" tend to be students from the nearby university, with generally poor English language skills themselves to start with. I wouldn't go expecting to get professional education in Mandarin from someone who knows what they're doing.

Same with Buddhism. The only evidence of Buddhism that you may even see in these schools, is a stature or two. In fact, the only real education in Buddhism that I've ever experienced there, (other than spending time with Decheng, which was an experience in itself), was many years ago at the wushu guan, with Shi De Ren, Shaolin's Buddhist master. He had spent some time with us, but, it wasn't much of an experience because of the language barrier. Shi De Ren was one of the throw away by products of Yongxin's purge.

In my opinion, if you go to any of these schools, you're going to learn modern wushu, with some degree of "traditional" forms and knowledge thrown in. You won't find much sanda or combat applications. The older generation monks will have passed down more traditional knowlege to their coaches, the younger generation "monks" will generally teach modern competition oriented wushu.

[wen]

Thanks doc i will keep this in mind

[Chicken]

Hi Wen,

your questions:

>can anyone tell me besides gongfu what else can you learn at yan zhangs school?

the school teaches gongfu. If you are there for a year, you will be able to express yourself and understand basic Chinese around the context of learning Shaolin and life in the school and in Dengfeng. I also became more enlightened to what Shaolin or Chan Buddism is all about, but only once I started observing what was going on in the environment and stopped focusing on myself.

>and can you tell me what is the price in yuan?

2,500rmb per month

>im looking to stay for long term a year to start with is there any discounts if you pay a certain amount upfront?

I don't think so.

>and is there a school shop where you can buy uniforms and weapons?

Yes regarding uniforms, they will take you to the weapons shops and assist you in making good purchases.

I'm not sure how this got turned into the Modern - Traditional Wushu debate again, but they teach both traditional and modern wushu, plenty of Sanda and combat. They will teach you whatever you want if you are physically up for it.

Linguists out there will hopefully support me in that most language acquisition is most efficient living in the culture that you are learning, not in a classroom. If you want to learn Chinese, I strongly advise you go to Dengfeng. Its one of those places where you have to learn Chinese, out of necessity. 2 friends of mine had no intention of learning Chinese when they went to Yan Zhang's for a year. 2 years later both could still hold a converstation in Chinese. (I think they should send language students there, I would have learnt a lot more on my degree course had I have been in Dengfeng and not in language school in Taipei!)

Sorry I didn't reply sooner... its been a really ugly last month or so.

Chicken

[mortal]

For the record I have seen the sanda and it isn't very good.

Riddle me this, what traditional forms did you learn? Is there an example of them on this site? Please don't mention the hongquan forms. They have been modified to wushu. I personally love wushu. But just don't pee on me and tell me its raining.