Just met a former member of the Guangdong Wushu team that is going to university here in Canada. We chatted about Tagou (amongst many things), he stated that he had visited as one of his friends, a former member of the Henan Wushu team was working there. He mentioned that the Tagou institute is quite the shrewd business operation, and that when you sign onto the school as Chinese citizen you are only allowed to eat in Tagou canteen (additional cost) & must shop in their in house store for a personal needs (clothing, toiletries, etc... another additional cost) and that per the contract you are not allowed to purchase these things elsewhere.

He also mentioned that Tagou is one of the largest employers for professional athletes retiring from the Henan team. And that unlike the professional gov't teams, Tagou did not require retired athletes to gain a college teaching degree to work at Tagou.

An interesting conversation that kind of provided some insight as to how they (Tagou) are able to run such a large operation.

Do you know if the other institutes also run like this? I know that privately run schools are springing up all over China & find it interesting to understand how they compete in what has to be the most competitive market in the world for Chinese martial arts.