Wudang Taoist Kung Fu Academy

[Dingy]

Is anyone familiar with the Kung Fu academy on Wudang Mountain? Have any of you gone to study there? I read the article in KungFu magazine about the chief priest. But is this place good to learn? do they do crazy things? Does anyone have any info??

[bo_hou_chuan]

I don't know anything about it, good luck in your search.

[GeneChing]

Do you mean our SEP OCT 2004 cover story (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=378) or my personal e-zine account of going to Wudang (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=5)?
I didn't get the chance to train there unfortunately, but I visited two of the more prominent schools. I'm not sure how many there are up there - not too many actually, although I hear there are more in the foothills. I'm not sure what you mean by "crazy things" but there's definitely some good stuff going on up there.

[Dingy]

I was referring to the Sept/Oct Cover story from 2004.

The site for the academy im planning to attend on Wudang mountain is
www.wudang-kungfu.com


Excellent articles by the way.

[GeneChing]

There's more.

Beyond the cover story for the SEP OCT 2003 issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=377) , we did a 'Wudang' special for our Sep Oct 2002 issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=235) - that's where I unloaded a goodly chunk of my Wudang research. You should pick up that back issue too, if you're researching Wudang. In fact, that's the key one, IMO.

[stubbs]

Just out of interest, have you asked how big the class sizes are?

There's a big difference between this:

http://www.wudang-kungfu.com/train_01.jpg


and this:

http://www.wudang-kungfu.com/pics/town_school.jpg

[GeneChing]

I couldn't really get a sense of the size of the classes. When I visited the school, it was quite small. It had some prime real estate, on the mountain facing Purple Cloud temple, but their demo/practice hall was so small that we all had to stand outside and peer in through the windows. Of course, that was back in '99 and I've heard it's expanded considerably. Like at Shaolin, I imagine more practice goes on outside, on the mountain, in the dirt, than inside training halls.

As a foreigner, it's pretty easy fro you to arrange private lessons that are reasonably affordable, and then just sit in on the group classes for the conditioning, etc. That's what I used to do at Shaolin at least...

[Dingy]

Is there any way to pay to view the issue online? I'm leaving soon and i don't think it will arrive in time.

[GeneChing]

...but we do have same day shipping, so it should get to your pretty fast. You can call and ask to see if we can get to LA quickly, although S&H for a single issue is admitedly high, so next-day delivery would be really high. But if you're going to Wudang, it is the best thing about it available in print.

[Dingy]

well, i'm here now. extremely sore. but i'm alive and having a great time. it's a little pricey and the living conditions are kinda gross, but it's an incredible art and it's very nice to be able to train at the temple. the classes are extremely laid back and you basically have all the attention your little heart desires. ohh, and the scenery.. it's beautiful. like something out of a dream.

[GeneChing]

Where are you exactly? Did you opt to train at the temple school above? Let us know how it's going there here.

[Dingy]

Yeah, it's going great. Im up at the temple school on the mountain, on the right just before you come up to the temple. It's $900 a month and we train 2 times a day for about 3 hours each. The food isn't bad. We train up at the Purple heaven palace in the mornings and at the academy at night. There are about 5 other foreigners who are in the class as well. There is a little practice room that we use inside if the weather outside is bad.

The training is great. The teacher is excellent. Also there are other Wudang teachers that pop in for a couple days at a time that will join in on the instructions. Right now im learning the five animal qi gong, some other basic stuff, and some 8 immortals sword.

For me this is a priceless experience, and i am truley having the time of my life. I just got some custom kung fu uniforms made from a lady here in town who also makes alot of the teachers uniforms.

The living conditions at the academy are kinda crappy. Had some water leaking on me last night while i was sleeping.

I cant wait to see the rest of the mountain. Feed some wild monkeys, explore the many caves and temples. I drank from the eternal spring, which was awesome!

My teacher is Master Zhongs nephew, Teacher Bin.

[fiercest tiger]

Any chance you will go to Hua Shan or Wu Tai shan for collecting information for your mag?

What unusual Chi Kung or kung fu systems you find in Wudang Mt?

Garry
FT:)

[Sensei_Andy]

"Five dragon men frmo Mars must never fight against the mantis - for then true annihilation will be upon the owlrd"

[GeneChing]

All those mountains are on the list, believe me. Unfortunately, the martial arts magazine industry can't afford me to go just like that. It's not like we'll sell that many more issues if I were to go and do research there, and it would cost the company not only in my travel expenses (and I travel light always) but also my time. There would be no one here to cover for me while I was away. Also I don;'t have any guanxi there, at least not yet. Someday hopefully, though. I'd love to see all the sacred mountains of China.

Dingy- that's $900 RMB, is it?

[fiercest tiger]

hahaha Take out a Loan?! ;) Yeah i would also like to visit the sacred mountains and visit the temples there.

Garry

[GeneChing]

Garry, I just realized I didn't answer the second part of your question. I talked about it somewhat in my Wu-Tang enters Wudang chapter 5 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=9). To be honest, I didn't see near as many demostrations as I would have liked. I wasn't there for that long. I did see this bizarre demo of fajing where this guy was throwing around this other guy using all parts of this body. I've seen similar demos before, but this one was extreme. Again, to be honest, I felt that one was faked. At one point, on guy slapped the other guy's head, then bounced back as if thrown by his opponent's qi. I'd have to feel that one personally to beleive it. There was a lot of weird taiji - hard to describe really - there are so many variations of taiji.

[Doug]

Gene,

What other forms of "weird" Taiji or qi gong did you see? I would appreciate knowing more about this, given your position as one who has sene it versus so many more who have not. It sounds interesting.

Doug M

[Chief Fox]

All those mountains are on the list, believe me. Unfortunately, the martial arts magazine industry can't afford me to go just like that. It's not like we'll sell that many more issues if I were to go and do research there, and it would cost the company not only in my travel expenses (and I travel light always) but also my time. There would be no one here to cover for me while I was away. Also I don;'t have any guanxi there, at least not yet. Someday hopefully, though. I'd love to see all the sacred mountains of China.

Dingy- that's $900 RMB, is it?
Hey Gene, why not have a contest. You could send one of your loyal readers ;) to Wudang. You'd probably sell more magazines that way too.

[Samurai Jack]

I'd buy a subscription for the chance to go to Wudang or Shaolin. I'll bet you'd sell a ton of mags with a once yearly drawing for a week long trip like that.

[GeneChing]

You know the magazine isn't made of money here. If it was, it would be sending me to China on a regular basis. I'm skeptical that we'd sell enough subscriptions to make such a trip contest affordable to us. Just look at our present contest (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/Unleashed_DVD_Sweepstakes.html) - this one is for free and if I converted the entries into subscribers (an unrealistic conversion at best) it would not be worth it for us to offer such a trip. Maybe in a few more years, after my plan for kung fu world domination succeeds. But until then, you'll have to go the old fashioned way - you'll have to earn it yourself. That's how I first went.

As for weird tai chi, it's hard to describe really. I can recognize the main five styles of tai chi relatively easily, of course, as well as some of the lesser known forms. Some of the wudang forms were completely unrecognizable - different forms different expressions of energy. Note that there is a wushu influence in their demos - just like anywhere in China - so to see an aerial in a wudang demo form wasn't too shocking. Of course, any trained eye knows how to appreciate such demos and overlook such showboating to get to the core. I remember watching this taoist nun doing some weird mudra-like work while she rested. She was assisting Zhong Yun Long (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=378) during an audience we had with him by serving tea. While she rested, she was reciting these amazing gesture permutations with her hands, sort of below the table. I don't think anyone else noticed. I would love to get at more of that kind of stuff. Such is Wudang. It's still a very mysterious mountain. I hope that one of your pilgrims can bring something back for the magazine someday, since I doubt I'll go that way again soon.

[chud]

As for weird tai chi, it's hard to describe really. I can recognize the main five styles of tai chi relatively easily, of course, as well as some of the lesser known forms. Some of the wudang forms were completely unrecognizable - different forms different expressions of energy. Note that there is a wushu influence in their demos - just like anywhere in China - so to see an aerial in a wudang demo form wasn't too shocking. Of course, any trained eye knows how to appreciate such demos and overlook such showboating to get to the core.

Frankly that is what concerns me. The government pretty much squelched most of the traditional kung fu, and now they promote this acrobatic wushu which we're all supposed to smile and accept...sorry but I ain't buying it. I hope that I'm wrong and there is still some authentic traditional kung fu being taught there at the mountain. Good luck.

[GeneChing]

Yeah, don't buy the old gov't squelching story for one minute. It just shows you've never been to China's country and have no idea of true nature of traditional martial arts. True traditional CMA is pervasive and such practice is easy to hide up outside of the cities. Just do that math - how many people are there in China and how many squelchers are there? The hand of the government clearly came through, but it's impossible to control the will of the TCMA proponents. They'll always find a way, just like they have for centuries. True TCMA is like bamboo - once planted, you can never get rid of it. It's tenacious, by definition. There is so much stuff TCMA still going on out there, I feel quite secure that my research will never end. The only real problem with what happened with the Cultural Revolution, etc. is that TCMA masters are not forthcoming - in fact, they're rather secretive, so you really got to dig to get at it.

[Chief Fox]

You know the magazine isn't made of money here. If it was, it would be sending me to China on a regular basis. I'm skeptical that we'd sell enough subscriptions to make such a trip contest affordable to us. Just look at our present contest (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/Unleashed_DVD_Sweepstakes.html) - this one is for free and if I converted the entries into subscribers (an unrealistic conversion at best) it would not be worth it for us to offer such a trip. Maybe in a few more years, after my plan for kung fu world domination succeeds. But until then, you'll have to go the old fashioned way - you'll have to earn it yourself. That's how I first went.
Can't blame us for trying. :D

[Samurai Jack]

Gene, my man! I checked out a round trip airfare from LAX to Beijing and came up with $897.00. Now that's perfectly affordable for a big-time Kungfu rag, no? All you'd have to do is offer airfare, after all. In a year's time you really don't think all those people who buy from the news-stand anyway wouldn't be willing to subscribe? Plus a years worth of advertising incentive would surely make a diffrence since you'd have "Win a trip to Shaolin" on every magazine cover for a year.

Actually, if you didn't attach the sweepstakes or whatever to a subscription you'd probably sell more magazines. You could give an entry in the drawing for coming online here and entering the UPC code from inside each mag... or somesuch.

[GeneChing]

I wish we could afford more, but we really can't at this time. We would have to provide more than airfare too - if we just cut some poor subscriber loose in China, all sorts of things could happen and we'd be responsible. Besides, the publishing industry is on a steady decline, so there's not that much extra money just lying around. If there were, I'd probably spend it on hiring bikini models for our sparrring gear. OK, just kidding, sort of....:o

Strangely, the idea of running a KungFuMagazine.com tour was just brought up by our CEO about a week ago. Gigi and I were both very down on the idea. I-ve co-lead two tours to Shaolin before and one ended in tragedy, so I'm really not into it at all. Gigi moves too fast. A tour would never be able to keep up with her. And if they could, they certainly would need to hire us to get around China - they could do it themselves. Frankly, it's the responsibility - the legal responsibility - of running such a tour, that bothers us.

[dougadam]

I was referring to the Sept/Oct Cover story from 2004.

The site for the academy im planning to attend on Wudang mountain is
www.wudang-kungfu.com


Excellent articles by the way.

I would love to visit this place someday.

[GeneChing]

It's not Wudang, it's Hong Kong. And it's not being put on by Kung Fu Tai Chi, it's being put on by National Geographic. NG is a magazine with a serious budget - they get car advertisers and such, stuff that is light years beyond anything we can solicit in the martial arts field. Nevertheless, this trip to Hong Kong is with my friend and fellow Shaolin researcher, Justin Guariglia. I spotlighted Justin's work in a short news piece, Shaolin & Amnesty International, in our Jan Feb 2006 issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=632).

Discover Hong Kong sweepstakes (http://www.points-of-departure.com/hongkong/)

[pdf108]

this is the wudang taoist kungfu school's website, you can see a lot of wonderful wudang taoist kungfu and beautiful wudang photos in this website:

http://www.daoistkungfu.com

http://www.wudangkungfu.de