kung fu in Xian

[KC Elbows]

Hey, may be going to Xian for a bit, who are the folks to seek out?

[sean_stonehart]

Zhao Chang jun has a pretty big wushu school there. He's mostly modern, but has some traditional skills like Zha Quan & stuff. He's in the Southern Suburb literally down the road from the Big Wild Goose pagoda (I think...)

[WanderingMonk]

going to xian, challenge omarthefish, he might still be in xian when you get there. hahaaaaa

He can introduce you to his baji/bagua teacher. feel the power of baji.

[omarthefish]

****, that would be cool.

Yeah. I'm not going anywhere soon. We could make it a little throwdown even! I've been curious to meet you at some point. Last year I was in KC for a week but it happened so quickly I didn't have time to put out a shout. I don't know if I could have pulled my self away from my family at the time anyways. My dad is from KC. We basically just gorged ourselves on ribs all week and visited the places of his youth....what are the 2 big names for ribs? Curtis's and ...???

Anyways, yeah. If you get here call me on my cell: 131 4922 4493 or try my home (029) 8533 6791 (from inside China) You can come down to the park in the morning and meet my teacher.

[KC Elbows]

As far as BBQ, there's Gates, a lot of people like Arthur Bryants(I don't care for AB much), Zarda is another local favorite, but Gates would probably be the best known. I've never actually been to Curtis', have to try that out.

This trip won't be for some time, but it would be funny to have the KC throwdown in Xian.

I'll email you the particulars as well as a bunch of questions I have about Xian, if that's cool.

Now, this baji you speak of, has it ever been used for fighting purposes?

[GeneChing]

Try GM Ma Xianda - he was our Nov/Dec 2002 cover story

[Meat Shake]

"Now, this baji you speak of, has it ever been used for fighting purposes?"

Meat Shake has heard many, many positive things of baji.

[MonkeySlap Too]

Baji is very cool.

[omarthefish]

Are you familiar with Xi'an KC?

Taking you over to the PE University would be a good excuse for me to meet him as well. I've always been curious but he doesn't seem super accessable. The couple people I've chatted with who trained at the PE University didn't seem to know who he was. Of course one of them was a boxer....I kind of expected the Sanda guy to know though.

[KC Elbows]

Actually, I know virtually nothing about it. I know there's some sort of gigantiterrific pagoda temple there belonging to [denomination unknown by author], there's a university, and that it's in China. And now that there's Baji in it, and Omar.

The possibility first came up a few hours before starting this thread. Unfortunately, thus far, most of the sites I've found were either very interesting dead links, or the same stock descriptions covering only the parts that relate to the "China Mystique" aspects of China, not so much the daily life, art scene, what have you. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is all worth checking out, but I'm curious what the writing scene is like out there, I have very little idea what Chinese lit is out there, no experience with it in it's original tongue(obviously) and a lot of curiosity about it.

Who is at what PE University?

[omarthefish]

PE = Physical Education. Ma Xian Da, who is probably the most famous guy in town teaches at the Physical Education University. That's right, you can get a degree in Sanda, Wushu or other sports there. He is also a Baji guy along with Pigua and Tongbei. Check the link Gene put up for more info on him. I pass the school on my way to the park where I go to meet my Shifu. He's a big name but charges a lot of bucks for foreign students and I doubt you'd get much hands on with him anyways. But it would be interesting to meet him face to face.

Zhang Xiang Wu Wushu Acadamy is about a 5 minute ride south of my home. I trained there for a short bit several years ago.

The pagoda you heard about is probably the Wild Goose Pagoda. There are actually 2 of them. A bigger one on the east side and a smaller one south west of downtown.

The biggest attraction though is not technically IN Xi'an. It's the famous terra cotta warriors and the tomb of the first emperor. They are in . . . I forget, it's about a 40 minute ride out of town. THAT is worth seeing. Also out to the east of town is the jade bathhouse that some Tang Dynasty emperor made special for his favorite concubine, Yang Gui Fei.

The BEST thing to do though is take a hour ride out to Hua Shan at night, hike to the top and catch the sunrise above the clouds in the AM. It's about a 6-8 hour hike, depending on your fitness level. It's mostly stairs carved into a mountainside.

The muslim district is a good afternoon and evening adventure and there is a small tibetan buddhist temple tucked away in the back. I can also show you where to get really good practice swords for about 60 yuan (8 bucks US.)

The little park that surround the city wall is a pretty good place to go scouting random internal guys.

There's lots of Ouigers in the south where I live running their Xingjiang style restaurants. I could also show you some truly authentic Sichuan cuisine since my GF's family is from Sichuan so she knows what it's supposed to taste like.

The city wall is pretty cool to walk around on too. Right near the south gate is the arts and crafts district but it might be worth scheduling a trip to the fine arts acadamy in the south.

Later.