Hi,
In the beginning, I checked out a lot of teachers and styles. After a while, I chose Praying Mantis because I felt it suits me better and concentrated on that style.
Shaobeiquan is an awesome style, it is like Long Fist combined with Wing Chun, plus a very fast and agressive fighting approach. But I like Mantis more, because it's more subtle.
Shaobeiquan is quite rare, even in China. It is widely practiced in the North Eastern provinces. But in the rest of China it is almost unknown.
In South Africa there's a Shaobei School run by Master Wang.
Greetings,
Lav