Going to HK and Beijing soon...some help?

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Southern Chinese Kung Fu
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I am leaving for HK on Wednesday on a tour I booked with AAA. I will be there for four days. The tours are not all day, so I will have time to go places. I was wondering if anyone knows where to go to see traditional southern Kung Fu.

I have done some research on the Internet and have found some martial art stores and training places to visit. Can anyone tell me more information about the ones below?

Chin Woo Athletic Association of Hong Kong
Teacher: Fung Yoy-Gin
Lineage: Sum Nung > Kwok Wan-Ping > Fung Yoy-Gin
Schedule: Monday 6.45 - 8.30 p.m.
Location: Flat B - C, 13th Floor, Wah Fung Building, 300 Nathan Road, Kowloon
Tel: 23843238
Fax: 24851567
Notes: Also Pao Fa Lien Wing Chun (with teacher Leo Man) Saturday, 6.00 - 8.00 p.m., and private lessons for advanced learners of all styles available.

Guangzhou Taiji Wing Chun Institute
Teacher: Kwok Wan-Ping
Lineage: Sum Nung > Kwok Wan-Ping
Location: Sam Shui Po, Kowloon
Notes: Teaching Sum Nung Jongsi’s siu lien tao, chum kiu, biu jee, sup yee san sik, muk yan jong sao, chi sao, etc. Also teaching Wudang and Fu Wing-Fei systems’ fu shi, chen shi taiji, liangyiquan, sixiangquan, bagua longxing quan, xingyiquan, wudang taiji jian, qixing jian, dao, gun, taiji tuishou, sanshou, etc. Osteopathy & massage available.
More Info: Wing Chun from Guangzhou (Article)

Guangzhou Taiji Wing Chun Institute
Teacher: Lee Chi-Yiu
Lineage: Sum Nung > Lee Chi-Yiu
Location: Top floor, Ming Fat Bld, 53 Bute St, Mong Kok, Hong Kong.
Notes: Teaching Sum Nung Jongsi’s siu lien tao, chum kiu, biu jee, sup yee san sik, muk yan jong sao, chi sao, etc. Also teaching Wudang and Fu Wing-Fei systems’ fu shi, chen shi taiji, liangyiquan, sixiangquan, bagua longxing quan, xingyiquan, wudang taiji jian, qixing jian, dao, gun, taiji tuishou, sanshou, etc. Osteopathy & massage available.
More Info: Yuen Kei San Wing Chun Kuen (Article)

Kung Fu store
6A, 188-192 Johnston Road, WanChai, Hong Kong.
Phone number: 28911912
264D –Tel:27280010
13 – 23906919
Kwong Wing http://www.kw2.com.hk
35114/F A - 31051556
CS TANG: Room C, 4/F., Tak House, 5 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong

I don’t know any Chinese. Do you think there will be people there to speak English? I also wonder if I will be brave enough to step into a taxi cab with no knowledge of the language and ask people to take me to these places.

What about bookstores? I would really like an English version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Outlaws of the Water Margin. I heard there are many English language bookstores on Tsim Tsa Tsui. Can anyone recommend one?

Restaurants…dim sum…what other places to go?

Last thing…I was wondering. If I buy a pair of butterfly swords in Hong Kong, will I run into some trouble when I fly to Beijing after? And back to the United States?

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Traditional Kung Fu in Hong Kong

Yeah go to Kowloon Park on a Sunday afternoon at about 2 - 4pm.
The area that you are looking for is now called ‘Kung Fu Corner’ or something like that.

There are usually some Hung Gar and Choy Lay Fut schools doing perfomances there.

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I just travelled through the whole of china into hongkong with my girlfriend.

They will mostly speak mandarin in beijing, when we went absolutly no one talked any english…so you have to learn to survive fast. I WOULD RECOMMEND BUYING THE BIG RED LONELY PLANET BOOK!!!

I just cant emphasize how much it helps when you speak no chinese and dont know your way around. And trust me…beijing is mindblowingly massive so the guide is well worth the 20 pounds. The easiest way to travel in beijing is by the subway and it only costs 3 yuan (esp good if your around the wangfujing area).
When you get off the plane you will need to get either a taxi or a bus to the center of beijing (depends where your going) because its about 20 km from the airport. I would recomend the bus as it takes you right into the center of the city and you dont end up paying 70yuan for a taxi ride.

Dont worry about the language in hong kong…lots of people talk english and its **** to get around. Again the metro is quite good, avoid taxis too, the roads are always congested!!!

In general its okay though. JUST WRITE DOWN WHERE YOU WANT TO GO (get lonely planet) and then show the cabby guy or the tok tok driver. They are usually very helpful, but if you look green then they will make a profit from you.

all i can say
get the book
craig

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in one dialect of Chinese, the word for hat and vagina are pronounced the same, only with different tones. Be careful on complimenting women.
“pardon me, but you have a very lovely hat”
“I couldn’t help noticing what a large hat you have”
“my wife has a hat just like yours!” :eek:

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Kungfu corner

Yeah I reccomend that. Most of the performers are students. it made me feel allot better about my kungfu and took away some of the misconceptions I had like “the people in HK are going to be way better than me”.

I also would go to there early in the morning to catch people training there.

Check out the Hong kong page in the photogallery page on my site it has some pics from there and a couple other cool places to visit.

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Hong Kong! Woo! My hometown!

Well, besides enjoying the kung fu stuff, i think you should check out the shops and food there as well. HK as of now is very hot + raining. So bring some sandals cause it might flood. Three area I think you should check out is Mon Kok, Tsim Tsa Tsui, and Causeway Bay.

For Westerner that I afraid to get screw by the Taxi in HK, take the subway, it is very clean and plenty of English signs to get yo to anywhere in HK. Get a Octopus card (smart card - Digital Cash) from the subway so don’t have to bring out the cash for small things. All transportation in HK accept the octopus card and some resturant also accept it.

Mon Kok have many cheap stuff. They have plenty of shoes shop and on one of the street they call it “Lady Street”, it have many accessories and stuff.

In the TST, you can take the Ferry to the HK Island, maybe take a few photos while on the ride (digital cash accepted). TST have shops on the street, like Nike Store, Puma Store, etc etc.

Causeway Bay, Central, and Admiral are the more trendy place of HK. Admiral have a place call Pacific Palace (I think), all the expensive stuff there, LV, etc etc.

If you like to drink, then visit Central, Lan Kwai Fong, A street full of pubs and bar, plenty of westerners there.

The TimeSquare is located at Causeway Bay and a shopping mall is there. no bigge.

Pretty much there is a shopping center on every exit throgh the subway station.

Well, hope this will help and make you enjoy your stay in HK. Have fun!!

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About Kung Fu Corner…on the brochure it says you can go up to some of the performers and ask them to teach you a little bit from their respective styles.

What styles do they have? Just Hung Gar and Choy Lee Fut?

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Asking a bit last minute… :slight_smile:

I just returned from HK last month. Go to Kowloon Park between 7-9am. Sunday is the best day but any day should be fine.

You will see lots of kung fu people of varying skills. I saw a lot of taichi and QiGong plus a lot of contemporary wushu. I did not make it to Kung Fu corner but friends had said the quality was not very high.

I was there on Sunday morning and met a taichi player that was very open. We exchanged some stuff and he invited me to push hands with some friends on Monday morning. (8am-9am) I can’t tell you exactly where but it around a big circular pond/fountain. It looked like a fountain but no flowing water. This group is just a bunch of friends of varying skill that like to push. They do “freestyle” moving step and I hada great time with them. The people I met spoke mainly cantonese and some mandarin. That said, the first guy I met was teaching a person from Italy and they were able to communicate.

I also met a very good Tang Long sifu and saw a pretty decent Wing Chun class. The majority of players in the park were not what I would call high level. I give them big props, though, for getting out and doing something. At least the kung fu folks out numbered the disco QiGong folks this year. (That’s a surreal sight. Elderly chinese people doing taichi type movements to 70s disco music. Staying Alive, indeed!)

For other Kung Fu, someone just posted the link to Mark Ho’s place. http://www.laufamilyhunggar.com

And there is Graham Player is my si-sook and a very good person:
http://www.hkhunggar.com/

I have also heard that Victoria Park is similar to Kowloon Park. I have never been there though.

Enjoy

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taichi4eva

If you dont know Cantonese get a guidebook first. Initially tentatively figure out what you want to see until you get a feel for things..
The taxi driver fraternity has some commonalities world wide- the worst I have been taken was in New York- long long ago. Got a nice tour of Manhattan whereas
my destination was only a few blocks away.
I have been in HK several times- but it was in the 80s. In offices and top flight business places- there will be folks who speak English. But it is catch as catch can on the street. At first when I was looking for a particular kwoon- I didnt have an exact address- the driver dropped me at a shopping center and told me to go downstairs for kung fu- I did and there was a group of fair;y skinny folks admiring themselves in the mirror at a Nautilus gym.. Several blocks away when I was looking for some jow-
a non English speaker brought out a tube of Ben Gay. Then I learned to ask for more specific information from people who knew a little English and it worked out fine. And then HK acquaintances of that time came through.
Depending on the style- there are kung fu associations that will have a list of schools.
The VTAA- the ving tsun/wing chun association has sucha list on their web site.
Macao is an hour’s boat ride away- Lui Ming Fai teaches very good wing chun there
at my Sigung- Ho Kam Ming’s old school.
Lots of good restaurants and dim sum places… a big hotel(French owned at that time I believe) attached to the old airport had pretty decent dim sum. Well decorated main room with large ice sculptures on some side tables.
I might get into trouble for this- but you dont want to learn taichi in HK-though people do it.

joy chaudhuri

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Thanks for the tip! I’m leaving for Deng Feng in 22 days (staying 1 month), so i need all the help i can get :slight_smile:

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Yea its usful for around shaolin Si and has a little section on dengfeng.

Keep an eye out in dengfeng, theres some really nice cheap weapon shops on the streets. I picked up a pair of feiyues, some throwing darts and a few other things. I would watch out on the hongkong underground and if you are walking across the border into hongkong from shezen. They poster everywhere sayign that throwing darts etc are not allowed…we got by okay though.

Cant really remember dengfeng that much, just remember a massive load of stairs leading up to a view of the city…oh and some well nice doughsticks (it was like minus 5).

craig