Taiwan Training Trip 2024 – March 29th to April 5th by Maree Day
Training
Every day we would train in the Hotel car park from at 8.30am to 9.30am then walk up to the Dojo by 10am. We would sit down for green tea and a chat before training started at 10.30am on the dot, not a minute later. The morning session would run until 12 noon then a short walk to restaurant for lunch. After lunch we would have a rest time until we returned to the Dojo by 3pm. Again, we would sit down for Green tea and a chat then start the afternoon training session at 3.30pm on the dot, not a minute later. We would finish training at 6pm then walk to the restaurant for Dinner.
This was the training routine every day, we would start with Dong Zwang – walking stand form, then Tway So – push hands and finish with Ba Gua.
Our daily routine was: Eat, Train, Drink green tea, Train, Eat, Rest, Drink green tea, Train, Eat and Sleep.
There was a lot of training, but also plenty of rest time.
Inner Door Ceremony
Early in the week, the formal ceremonies for Inner Door were held. It’s a ceremony where you pledge to practice well and to honour the Cheng Ming system and your Laoshi. Although held entirely in Mandarin, we had an interpreter who advised us what to do. Dawn, Christina and I did our Inner Door ceremony at the same time with Laoshi Bruce being in attendance along with Grandmasters David and Amelia and Great Grandmaster Wang Fu Lai. As an Inner Door student, more of the Cheng Ming syllabus opens up to us.
Laoshi Bruce did his Inner Room Ceremony – something not many students around the world have done. It was a very special night!
Local School Students
Tuesday night we did an extra training session after dinner with the local school students, this was a very advanced class of Bagua and Weaponry. It isn’t something we have yet learnt, I tried to follow but could not keep up, it was very fast paced and amazing to watch the skill level.
Before the class started I had an amazing experience of doing the full Tai chi sword form with one of the local students, even the bit I hadn’t learnt. Her technique was amazing, she told me I did it too fast!!
Food
The food was amazing. I was a little worried when I was told that we would be eating vegetarian for the time we were away but I was very surprised how delicious it all was. Breakfast was at 8am every morning in the carpark of the Hotel. Most morning we had Fan tuan’s, a rice ball with a fried donut/cruller (known as you tiao) inside with warm soy milk or a very, very strong black tea.
Lunch and Dinner was at a couple of different restaurants that we could walk too, every place had very nice food and A LOT of it, we never went hungry. One restaurant that we went to the most we named the “Red 8” It didn’t matter if it was lunch or dinner we always received a bowl of rice, then followed 7 different dishes and finished with a bowl of dessert/drink, total 8 dishes!
Memorial Hill Visit
On Sunday we went for a short drive up the mountain to the memorial space of Great Great Grandmaster Wang Shu Chin, the founder of Cheng Ming.
The mountain had a very steep and winding road. At the top was the amazing dragon pole and the very colourful Nantou nineteen long Zhu Taoist temple.
A short walk around the corner from the temple was Great Great Grandmaster Wang Shu Chin memorial.
It was a very spiritual and respectful experience. The space was cleaned of leaves, we lined up in the highest rank to lowest, starting with the Grandmasters, inner room Students then the inner door students as flowers were offered to Great Great Grandmaster Wang Shu Chin by Grandmaster Amelia and Master Paolo from Europe Cheng Ming. After the offering one by one we went up the stairs to the burial spot of Great, Great Grandmaster Wang Shu Chin to bow and pay our respects.
Great Grandmaster Wang Fu Lai
Great Grandmaster Wang Fu Lai was amazing to watch when he was doing any of the forms. He makes it look so easy. He speaks very little to no English but can count to 5 when he is training us and tell us “slower” or “lower”
He shows us a few moves then sits back on the stone seats and watches us while we practice. You don’t think that Great Grandmaster is watching but he sees every move. If it’s done wrong, he would jump up and come to correct us.
When Great Grandmaster was happy that we remembered that move he would add the next move for us to learn and we would practice, practice and practice.
There are so many amazing take-outs from this trip, but the one thing that will always stay with me is what Great Grandmaster Wang fu Lai said to us, “Believe what our Grandmaster and Laoshi teach us, it is the real stuff and practice 30 minutes a day. Everyone is at different stages of their training, don’t stop training, manage your training, don’t miss because of an early meeting, just get up earlier.
It is important to remember that there is always something to learn no matter how much you think you know. And sometimes different Great Grandmasters, Grandmasters, Laoshi or other teachers will show you different ways and that’s ok, it’s how they have remembered it. Always ask your Laoshi if you are unsure, they will ask their Laoshi and up the chain it goes. Even the Grandmasters are being picked up on hand positions, twisting at waist etc.”
I cannot say how grateful and honoured I am to have been trained by the Great grandmasters. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Maree Day
