clayton

I live in Beijing. Don't be talking to teachers in Beijing about intentions of going home and making big bucks as teachers. After hearing about how much Kumar and others charge for classes back home, they are already very sensitive to the issue, and between that and rabid Nationalism, in Beijing (where the cost of living is somewhere south of 1/5 of that of Big City N.America) I pay more for instruction then I ever did while living in N.America. And yes, the Chinese government has 100% control of the media inside the country, and extensively censors access to international websites. That is why many (most?) mainland Chinese still believe that Taiwan is just another province. And don't try to tell them otherwise.

My first Chinese Martial Art was Yang-style Taijiquan, and I went into it with one knee injured from skiing. After years of knee pain, I began to practice Xingyiquan. That fixed it for me. I am not even sure which knee was originally injured. But I still find careless practice of Yang-style Taijiquan the fastest way to sore knees for me (for the record, Chen-style Taijiquan and Xingyiquan *never* cause me knee stress, and Baguazhang sometimes does, a little). When practicing Yang-style, I have found it particularly important to take as much movement and weight as possible in the kua (hips), the practical consequence of which is that the hips rotate instead of the knees twisting / moving. This is probably difficult to communicate in print, but the result tends to be that my weight stays further back, and my forward knee never goes past the middle of the foot (the toes are already too far, in my experience!).

Hi, I am hear because Tao Bums was recommended to me as an interesting hang-out for meditators. My main reason for living in Beijing is my interest in Baguazhang (and Xingyiquan, and Taijiquan, and Mandarin....) And I am a martial artist who considers sitting meditation to be a fundamental daily part of my practice. Clayton