Best parks to see martial arts in Beijing

[deezy]

Any good BJ parks to see good MA's or qigong folks practice in? Especially near BLCU?

Also, I assume the best time to go is generally at dawn?

[roddy]

Don't know of any near BLCU, but I've found Tiantan to be the best for that kind of thing - came across some old guy training a bunch of other old guys once who took the time to show us his pictures of him training the army and tell us about all the foreigners he'd trained. Zizhuyuan and Yuyantan(sp) are perhaps a bit more accessible from BLCU, although not by much.

[deezy]

Tiantan park, eh? Interesting. Now, since there's an admission fee...are we talking about actually INSIDE the park, or just out in front of it?

Zizhuyuan (Purple Bamboo) Park looks cool...and hey, it's even free!

Yuyuantan park seems to be known for its flowers and is a local favorite. Interestingly, they also have a regular Guolin Qigong "anti-cancer" class there!

From 5 to 6 o'clock every morning, hundred of people practicing Guolin Qigong started gather up at the Life Oasis by the B-1 Lakeside of Yuyuantan Park, a fine Qigong location with clear water and fresh air. There are people young and old, local and foreigners, anti-cancer victors and cancer-bearing survivors? Some are in critical conditions, others with chronic diseases such as lupus and chronic hapatitis, still others just come to learn. The teachers, once the personal students of Guolin herself, were Mr.Dayuan Yu, Ms.Yuncai Sun, and Ms.Kaifang He. The class schedule is 8:00-9:30 a.m., every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Each month a new class is started. Each year it runs in cycle.. In scorching summer or freezing winter, they keep on outdoor exercise. They believe in cancer preventive and curing effects of high volume oxygen intake ( 8 times normal amount ). For Guolin Qigong practitioners, the oxygen intake can be 20 times over the average daily breathing.

Well thanks for the tips, I'll keep these in mind..

[roddy]

There's a paragraph of notes here and if you search the names of the different parks you might find further info. They're all worth seeing - only trouble is that to see the best of the activities you need to be there early. And yes, you do need to fork up the cash and go inside - the local old folk will be getting in for free or next to free, and with Tiantan if you aren't worried about the tourist stuff you can just get the 门票.

Obviously you can't be sure you'll see anything in particular, but you are bound to see something interesting.

[roddy]

Oh, extra thought: University campuses are often good for that kind of stuff - maybe not as good as parks, but if you are at BLCU you've got a whole load of them nearby - at a guess Tsinghua and Beida would be best?

I used to use the running track at Beishida some (rare) evenings, and you'd usually have a few kung-fu, tai qi, etc folks nearby.

[heifeng]

Some parks have monthy tickets. So I'd put my money on whatever parks have nice, friendly monthly rates and discounts....

I've seen people cross country running through ditan ( I think the monthly ticket is 6 yuan? I'll actually look more carefully next time), and some other activities in beihai....but I don't really get up that early to see catch those practicing martial art I guess..

Oh yeah, also on N 3rd ring across from the post office in madian, that part is only 4 mao to get in....so maybe they are practicing there...