what is in western and central china?

[jun_erh]

in gradeschool i learned that 90 percent or so of china's population is on the east coast. It seems like most of the martial art stuff is too. so what is in the rest? anyone know? I mean way over towards afghanistan too

[Unstoppable]

Endless mystery.

[jun_erh]

this is not helping

[diego]

is that 90% as in chinese are in the east?. I read thier is many muslim styles from western china, and i think tibetan and mongol even india may have influence on the western regions kungfu!.:)

[northstar]

In the west there are deserts, Tibet, and several minority peoples, most of them different Turkic peoples. The muslim kung fu styles are mostly originated from the Huihui, living in the north of China (Hebei eg), but they are indistinguishable from the Han Chinese I believe.

[GeneChing]

Emei (a.k.a.) O-Mei Mountain is in the West, in Sichuan. It is the third martial mountain after Songshan (shaolin) and Wudangshan. Lately, I've been studying a little O-mei style and I find it fascinating. When the Cultural Revolution hit, many traditional styles headed to the coast, Taiwan, Hong Kong, then jumped ship and came to the America & Europe. But many also went to the Western China and hid up in the mountains. There's some really interesting traditional stuff coming donw off that mountain now, not just it's indigenous styles, but remnants of the Republic. Lately, my personal research has been taking my this direction, just because it's so juicy.

If you're seriously interested, you should take a look at our O-mei special issue - http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/kf-200009.html