Sword Player
07-01-2007, 08:02 PM
Going on four years here, I've had opportunity to get acquainted with costs and the Chinese approach to doing business with foreigners.
Be careful.
A world famous player here has a school which Chinese pay 2000 RMB/ yearly to attend. My cost? 16,000. I had a friend call and they said they would give me the same price as locals. When I actually went to the school without the friend, the price was 16,000.
An average Chinese high school teacher makes about 2,500 a month. Beer is 2 RMB per bottle in a restaurant. A nice flat with two bathrooms and 3 bedroms, outside of town, can be had for 450RMB/monthly. A one room flat with shared bathrom and no heat is about 100RMB/ monthly. 1 RMB is
about 12 cents.
Some foreigners think that throwing money at Chinese "masters" is going to improve their style. It won't. Besides the hype, giving that kind of money to a Chinese "master" is likely wasted. There are many exceptional players in the local parks. Some welcome foreigners into their classes. They charge usually 10-25/monthly, that's for 2-3 hours, 7 days a week. There is often a lot of one on one training going on during these sessions as well.
Swords in Dengfeng: The Shaolin sword factory outlet on the main street in Dengfeng sells swords for significantly higher than you can buy them for a mile or two away, off the main street. A sword that the factory wanted 1600 for was less than 1/4 of that a mile or so away. The Beijing Sports University has many sword shops close by. Great place to find all kinds of weapons, cheap.
A lot of exceptional players in China are using VCDs or DVDs to learn new forms. The advantage to this is that you have a really great teacher and you can replay the disc again and again until you get it down. Some teachers here, and everywhere else, get tired after teaching you the same move ten times. I don't blame them. You can get discs here for about 10 RMB. Some are more expensive but often not any better. Both DengFeng and Beijing, near the sports university, have a fantastic assortment of discs teaching nearly every weapon and many many fist forms. I've heard that Shanghai does too.
If you want to make the most of your time here, get some discs and learn the basic moves of the form before coming to China. Then when you get here, you can spend your time refining the moves.
Teaching English here is a great way to finance your wushu training. Find a job, come here and work and practice while getting paid. Chinatefl is a great site to look for jobs. Daveseslcafe also has a job board. Just be sure that you work for a legitimate school that will provide you with a Z visa.
Sure, there are other ways of going about wushu training in China, but this is one approach.
Be careful.
A world famous player here has a school which Chinese pay 2000 RMB/ yearly to attend. My cost? 16,000. I had a friend call and they said they would give me the same price as locals. When I actually went to the school without the friend, the price was 16,000.
An average Chinese high school teacher makes about 2,500 a month. Beer is 2 RMB per bottle in a restaurant. A nice flat with two bathrooms and 3 bedroms, outside of town, can be had for 450RMB/monthly. A one room flat with shared bathrom and no heat is about 100RMB/ monthly. 1 RMB is
about 12 cents.
Some foreigners think that throwing money at Chinese "masters" is going to improve their style. It won't. Besides the hype, giving that kind of money to a Chinese "master" is likely wasted. There are many exceptional players in the local parks. Some welcome foreigners into their classes. They charge usually 10-25/monthly, that's for 2-3 hours, 7 days a week. There is often a lot of one on one training going on during these sessions as well.
Swords in Dengfeng: The Shaolin sword factory outlet on the main street in Dengfeng sells swords for significantly higher than you can buy them for a mile or two away, off the main street. A sword that the factory wanted 1600 for was less than 1/4 of that a mile or so away. The Beijing Sports University has many sword shops close by. Great place to find all kinds of weapons, cheap.
A lot of exceptional players in China are using VCDs or DVDs to learn new forms. The advantage to this is that you have a really great teacher and you can replay the disc again and again until you get it down. Some teachers here, and everywhere else, get tired after teaching you the same move ten times. I don't blame them. You can get discs here for about 10 RMB. Some are more expensive but often not any better. Both DengFeng and Beijing, near the sports university, have a fantastic assortment of discs teaching nearly every weapon and many many fist forms. I've heard that Shanghai does too.
If you want to make the most of your time here, get some discs and learn the basic moves of the form before coming to China. Then when you get here, you can spend your time refining the moves.
Teaching English here is a great way to finance your wushu training. Find a job, come here and work and practice while getting paid. Chinatefl is a great site to look for jobs. Daveseslcafe also has a job board. Just be sure that you work for a legitimate school that will provide you with a Z visa.
Sure, there are other ways of going about wushu training in China, but this is one approach.