Last May, 2012. I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks training at the Wudang Principles (WDP) school in Wudangshan, Hubei. This is something I had been wanting to do for some time after attending a one day workshop with the head of the school Ismett Himmet. In fact he has students in my home town who run a WDP school and they had organised the day. At the workshop we worked on some Tai Chi form but what really interested me was the qigong form we started to learn. That day I started one of five basic movements of this stepping form of qigong and I really wanted to learn more.
Thus my trip to Wudangshan to explore the school and see what they had to offer. Briefly, I can say the school is very good and has excellent facilities. I would certainly recommend it though I would check that Ismett will be there if you plan to go. While I was there he was around for some of the days that I was training and the only criticism I have is that when he is not at the school there is no one else who can or will teach you. Maybe this has changed now as there are a dedicated and high level group of long term students training there.
I really enjoyed my stay there and I learnt a great deal some of which I will cover in other posts. I made a good start on learning the qigong form I now know to be called Wuxing Ziran Gong, or Natural Elements Gong. It is based around five main movement sequences each named after an animal corresponding to that elements (Turtle, Crane, Snake, Dragon & Tiger). There are static and stepping forms for each animal and I will post some videos at another time showing the static forms. In the video above Ismett demonstrates the form though clearly he is improvising. There also seems to be lots of movements that I have yet to be taught so it looks like I may well be making another trip to Wudang soon.
China Tai Chi Guide
Five Elements Academy
Long Tou Shan Tai Chi School
Seven Stars Internal Arts
Traditional Tai Chi School
Wandering Dao, China
