The Fourth Annual Wu Tang PCA Beijing Internal Martial Arts Training Trip

The Fourth Annual Wu Tang PCA Beijing Internal Martial Arts Training Trip

We are planning to go back to Beijing to visit and train in the internal martial arts of Tai Chi, Ba Gua & Xing Yi again in December: This Year's Details Please e-mail us if you are interested in going with us. Tina Zhang’s email: tineez@aol.com

One of the highlights in this year’s Wu Tang PCA Beijing Internal Martial Arts Training Trip was Frank Allen and Tina Chunna Zhang becoming formal disciples of Cheng Style Ba Gua Zhang Grandmaster Liu Jing Ru! The beautiful Bai Shi (discipleship) ceremony was presented in the Wan Yi Hotel, witnessed by Liu’s fellow and top senior disciples and followed by a celebration banquet at the Beijing Duck Restaurant featuring Bai Jiu (Chinese Wine) in the Ba Gua posture of Han Yan Wu. This ceremony and celebration took place on January, 3^rd, 2007.

The beautiful Bai Shi (discipleship) ceremony was presented in the Wan Yi Hotel, witnessed by Liu’s fellow and top senior disciples and followed by a celebration banquet at the Beijing Duck Restaurant featuring Bai Jiu (Chinese Wine) in the Ba Gua posture of Han Yan Wu. This ceremony and celebration took place on January, 3^rd, 2007. Frank and Tina will continue to train with grandmaster Liu Jing Ru and pass on the art of Cheng Style Ba Gua Zhang to as many people in the world as possible!

The fourth year of our Beijing training trip was a very successful and pleasant! It satisfied the repeat trainees as much as the new comers!

Frank Allen and Li Bing Ci - Photo by Amy Eckert
Grandmaster Li Bing Ci has such précise manner in teaching and reviewing the traditional Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan; and his push hands training brought us a higher level of understanding of the significance of the Wu Style. It was an awesome learning experience!

Grandmaster Li Jing Ru was in great shape and had a positive attitude as always. He taught us the Cascading Palm Ba Gua Zhang set with his deep knowledge, and everybody had a great fun with his exceptionally great teaching skills and unique sense of humor everyday!

Some of the Wu Tang PCA students also trained in Xing Yi Quan with Grandmaster Liu in private lessons between the classes!

The historical sites, the White Cloud Temple, the Best Beijing Duck restaurant,the Kung Fu show, and shopping in Beijing are experiences that you wouldn’t want to miss!

Practicing Circle Walking Meditation at White Cloud Temple

Tina Zhang practicing “Earth Energy Qi Gong at Temple of Earth

Frank and Tina,

Thank you for a wonderful trip to Beijing, China. The trip was organized and well planned. There are three aspects of the trip I want to address: tours, training and medical treatment. First, the scheduled tours were awesome. The Great Wall tour is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I have seen pictures of the Great Wall, however, to actually walk the Wall and gaze upon the terrain is something words cannot describe. The day of the tour it snowed and the scenery provided a snow and icy covering of the landscape and trees. This sight was unusual and one that I was fortunate to experience. The tour to the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven gave one a true sense of what the Emperors of China lives were like. If I could go back in time and choose the time and position, just call me Emperor Robert (smile). My interest in Taoism as a religion and the trip to The White Cloud Temple was a dream comes true for me personally. I spoke to several of the monks and found one who understood and spoke English proficiently. During the conversation we spoke of the different temples and gods. The monk actually took time to teach me how the monks pray. Great, great, great experience! The training more than met my expectations. The teachers were first class and true Masters of their art.

Li Bing Ci the Wu Style Tia Chi teacher was a knowledgeable and skilled instructor. His persistence for exactness and detail enabled one to learn and perform the movements easily. Li Bing Ci’s demonstrated a true concern for the students. He personally worked with various individuals. Li on many occasions corrected my posture and he allowed me to touch him as he performed various movements. His corrections and the ability to touch him improved my understanding. During the last class I was granted the honor of posing with him in two pictures; one standing with him and the other with him correcting the single whip posture.

Liu Jing Ru the Ba Gua teacher was gregarious and entertaining. His knowledge and skills of Ba Gua were immediately evident. Liu Jing Ru presentation of the Palm Changes and Cascading Palm were clear and concise. He was patient and supportive. I was afforded the opportunity to take several private lessons with Liu Jing Ru in the art of Xing Yi Quan (Hsing Yi). Looking for a word to describe my experience, all I can say is WOW! Over all, the experience of training with the Masters, Li Bing Ci and Liu Jing Ru is an experience anyone training in Internal Martial Arts must experience. Studying with the Masters is a different and higher level of training. During the trip I was fortunate to meet one of Liu Jing Rue’s students Kong Cheng. He has studied Ba Gua for twenty five years under the Liu Jing Ru and is a licensed Chinese Doctor. I am sixty years of age and have many injuries from weight lifting and playing football; torn and tight muscles to name a few. During my lifetime I have seen orthopedic surgeons, massage specialists and others. The only thing that has come close to ameliorating my physical aliments is the practice of Tai Chi and Ba Gua.

Well, I received two treatments of massage and acupuncture from Dr. Kong Cheng. After the first session the range of motion in my shoulders and arms was beyond belief. The treatments allowed me to move my shoulders and arms in positions I have not performed since I was in my twenties. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to experience training with the Masters, great tours, and my new body.
Robert T. O'Bannon Jr.

Hi Tina,
I had an absolutely wonderful time on the China trip. I cannot pull myself away from the pictures and the very recent memories of all that we experienced. Of course, the trip itself was amazing. Traveling to another country such as China was worth every minute. The sightseeing was fantastic. I still cannot believe that I saw the Great Wall. And I think that the day that we went must have been quite unusual and a real treat with the snow and ice covered trees. The pictures from that particular trip are something that is not always seen when people go to the Great Wall. I also particularly enjoyed The White Cloud Temple. I have never been exposed to this before, and for some reason, I think I could return there many times. Of course, the purpose of the trip which was to study with the Masters was an unbelievable experience. I know that I have only been recently introduced to the Arts (one year) so I may not have been able to appreciate the various levels that one might achieve with the masters if I had been studying a longer period of time. But, I know that by just participating in the class as we all did that I learned and improved remarkably! I was in awe of both teachers and their abilities and dedication to their art. I congratulate you on the organization of the trip. Everything went so smoothly and alleviated any anxieties that one might have going to an unknown place. The hotel accommodations were excellent and it was fun traveling with the group of people from the States and other countries.
Carol Licciardo

Journey to the Chen Village – the Birth Place of Tai Ji Quan
By Tina Zhang

After this year’s Beijing Internal Martial Arts Training trip, Jonathan and I took a 7 hour train ride to Zheng Zhou, a city where Master Chen Zheng Lei’s “Chen Village Tai Ji Quan School is located. We trained with Chen Zheng Lei’s son, Chen Bin, who I first met at Cheng Zheng Lei’s workshops in the States last year and he knew we were coming. We had the 18 posture Chen Village Style Tai Ji form reviewed and learned the 18 posture Sword form, which is short, but includes the major postures of Chen Tai Ji sword. It was another fantastic learning experience with Master Chen. On our fourth day there, we took hour and a half taxi ride to visit the Chen Village. Mr. Liu, a manager from the Chen’s School who was originally from the Village, volunteered to go with us and show us around the village. On the high way to the Village, we jumped out of the taxi to stop at a bridge over the Yellow River to have a view of the River, and the Tai Ji symbols all along the bridge. Yellow River Bridge The Chen Village, as I expected, is a very common village, a poor corner on the planet. There are about 700 families and 2000 people living in the village. There was no electricity before 1964, and the first tap water started to run in 1983. There were public telephones, but you could not get a phone line in your house until 1995. There is only one elementary school in the village and children go out of the village to attend high schools if they’d like to have a higher education, but some of them don’t.

Mr. Liu took us to his home in the village and we met his Mother who was 80 years of old and a Tai Ji Quan practitioner when she was young. She looked healthy and happy. The villager’s home did not have a heating system or heater and we saw some of the villagers gathering around a fire to get a little warmer spot to hangout… Houses that have a refrigerator and a television are considered a luxury.

Liu and Mom Villagers the Only schoolThe village and villager’s life style have not changed much since the village began in the 1300’s. It made me wonder how the most famous and fastest growing in popularity Tai Ji Quan style was invented in this village? When we visited the original Chen Village Tai Ji Quan School, everything seems to be answered by what we saw – the old style training setting, the young kids who were training in physical stretching, and some students training in forms as well as weapons…It is Only Tai Ji Quan, that gives the village a very different meaning and makes it historically interesting!

It was very impressive when we visited Chen Wang Ting (1600-1680), the founder of Tai Ji Quan’s graveyard – which is a Tai Ji museum now. The yard where Yang Lu Chan (1799-1871), the Yang Style Tai Ji Quan founder practiced Tai Ji Quan when he lived and learned Chen Village Style Tai Ji Quan from Chen Chang Xing(1771-1853) and the grave stone of Chen Zhao Pei (1893-1972), who trained Chen Xiao Wang, Chen Zheng Lei, Zhu Tian Cai, and Wang Xi An – four diamond Chen Village Style Masters.

Chen Zhao PeiChen Wan Ting Yang Lu Chan’s yard

Inside Tai Ji Museum

Here comes the Big Ditch! (Chen Village – Chen Jia Gou in Chinese, means Chen Family Ditch)

In 1374, Chen Pu, the first generation of the Chen family moved from Shan Xi Province and settled in the village, which was named “Chang Yang Village”. Later on, the Chen family become the majority of the population, over 70% of the villager’s last name were Chen, so, they renamed the village as “Chen Jia Gou”, after the Big Ditch at the east end of the village. Now, the Ditch is a garbage dump and the villagers don’t care about its existence, but the visitors do. The village is still the village, the Tai Ji still the Tai Ji, and both are never going to change!