Shi YanZhang's School in China

[shaolinstylee]

If you wanna try to smoke ass hair, go ahead.. but I'm not gonna suggest it.

[dogchow108]

snarf...

[jopol]

email?

You would'nt happen to have an email address to shi yanZhang, would you?

[doc]

Ha. Email and the Chinese? That's almost as reliable a method of communication as using a syphillitic carrier pigeon with one leg.

Their damn phone hardly works. Just like many of these other schools.

[jopol]

going to shiZanYang

So doc, if I want to go there and train for say a year, I just show up at the door?...What could be a probable reason for not being allowed to start training?..And how probable is it that there are no rooms available at the school?

Is there any kind of appliance process other than showing the money..so to speak ?

thanx

[doc]

Go. Don't worry about it. Money talks. Especially in China. And if things don't work out, which I doubt, call me and I'll set you up somewhere else. There are many, many schools in Dengfeng.

[jopol]

The school has a website:

http://www.chinesekungfucity.com

[benjayjorgensen]

more school info

I am wanting some more info on shi yanzhang's kung fu school. I am advanced level in hung gar and want to go all out to the max. If I could get some more info or how to get more info that would be great

[benjayjorgensen]

my email is benjayjorgensen@yahoo.com, please write me with info

[Mark]

Benjay,

Maybe I can offer some help, having trained at this school for the last 3 1/2 months, until recently moving on to train elsewhere.

You should be aware that a few things have changed since Hei Hu's original post:

The training fees are now 2000 RMB, including the usual: Lodging, food and training. There was NO offer of discount for long periods of training or for lump-sum payments up front.

We (some predecessors, myself and a lad still there) train within the normal classes with the other Chinese Students. This is fine if you want to proceed through the 'normal' training route. But there is NO option of a private coach, to 'tailor' your program, or to learn 'whatever you want'.

Other than that I believe Hei Hu had covered most of the neccessary details/information through the start of this thread.

As you should be aware by now, there are many many school's in DirtyDengFeng, some of which will be able to offer you cheaper training fees if money is an issue.

BTW, are you aware of the differences you will encounter in training? I too had studied Nan Quan before coming to China. As long as you are aware of it and prepared to 'start over' to some degree then that's fine.

If there are any other neccessary questions you have, then please direct them back to me through this thread.

Best Regards,

Mark

[benjayjorgensen]

mark-
I can't thank you enough for giving me a reply so soon. I really want to attend a school. I was trained very traditionally with a lot of intensity. I want to find the best school, the most original, the most hardcore, and the most philosophical. If you could send me some links/phone numbers, any way that I can make contact that would be great. I don't want to attend the most popular school, if it isn't one of the better schools. Mark, all I am saying is give me the low down. I would greatly appreciate it.
ben jorgensen

[doc]

I doubt that you'll find philosophy in any of these schools. They're wushu schools, all devoted towards getting their domestic students to do well in competitions. They're hardcore, they're good, and there are one hell of a lot of them. Some very good, some very bad, with a lot in between. You also might want to investigate Shi Heng Jun's school; the training no doubt is comparable, but the location, extraordinary. I still have to write about my experiences there.

[Mark]

Ben,

The doc is right, the schools are all biased towards WuShu - it's how they survive. It would be nearly impossible ( and impractical) to send you a complete list of links or phone numbers. For one, I doubt that they would be able to hold any meaninful conversation with you (and that's if they actually speak English), most of the time you will get a lot of 'Yes, our school is very good' 'Or our master's Gong Fu is very good' etc etc. I would be very suprised if you could really benefit from any telephone conversation, or looking at pictures on a website. And in terms of practicality, do you realise how many schools' details there would be to gather?! Just take those German guy's website for example, a mass of very carefully gathered information taking much time and effort, but now sadly largely out of date.

The thing is you can't compare training in DengFeng to your training back home, especially Nan Quan. Back home you will have had alot of verbal content within the lesson by the sounds of it and hence you mention philosophical content, which will simply be lacking here, unless you are fluent in Chinese (and such thoughtful or inspirational pearls of wisdom are actually given by the teacher/coach!) You will find all the training hardcore and I think you will be hard pushed to find any major difference in teaching standards (hardcore-ness & originality) between the 'main ring' of school's in the area.

Unfortunately you will not find what you are 'expecting' in terms of your traditional Hung Quan training, or maybe your 'perception' of Gong Fu in general. I went throught the same thought process and i'm sure many others have too.

The best thing to do is gather as much pre-liminary research as you can before you come here, but then only use it as a guideline, never fix yourself on the idea of 'i'm definitely going to study at this school. Come to DengFeng, wander around the different schools for a few days, asking questions and physically witnessing the training for yourself. It is by far the best solution.

Again, anything else, fire it this way!

Mark

[jopol]

But really, although most schools are biased toward wushu, surely some of them also teaches the traditional stuff, like traditional forms and weapons. I mean, even though the emphasis is on performance, it is still traditional stuff you learn, is it not?

[shaolinstylee]

The Shaolin Special from last year (I think it has Yong Xin on the cover) has a map of Dengfeng and talks about some of the schools and such.


Some schools teach some traditional.