The Birthplace of Taijiquan Attracts Attention from Around the World

During the 2018 Chinese spring festival, Chenjiagou, the birthplace of “Taijiquan”, was extremely popular.

Various events, such as temple fairs, traditional food fairs, lantern festivals, were held in Chenjiagou, which attracted over ten thousands of visitors during the 7-day holiday of Spring Festival.

Among all, the Taiji related events were extremely popular. Nearly one hundred foreign “Taiji lovers” enjoyed a distinguished Chinese traditional holiday in Chenjiagou: they’ve studied Taiji from the masters, ate dumplings, and participated in pasting spring couplets next to doors.

According to the report, Chenjiagou scenic area’s visitor numbers was 10 times higher than the previous years, and became the highest in history, during the 2018 Spring Festival.

On the Wangting Street, the ancient Chenjiagou Memorial Temple, Yang Luchan Taijiquan School, the first Taijiquan Cultural Temple Fair, the 3rd session of the Chenjiagou Taijiquan Exchange Competition……Chenjiagou and its Taijiquan character attracted people around the world to visit.

People used to say that Taijiquan has spread worldwide, but its birthplace of Taiji, Chenjiagou, is still a rare place for most people.

Now, “Chenjiagouers” can proudly to say that Chenjiagou is famous worldwide because of Taijiquan

You can always see foreigners in Chenjiagou when walking along the street. And the foreigners there are becoming more “localized”: not only can they perform some basic movement of Taijiquan, but they can also speak pretty good Chinese or even some Henan dialects.

During this year’s Spring Festival, nearly a hundred foreigners visited and studied Taijiquan in Chenjiagou.

The current Chenjiagou Taijiquan School is located at the ancient Memorial Temple of Chen Family. The headmaster of the school, Mr. Chen Ziqiang, is also the 20th generation of descendant of Chen-style Taijiquan. Right now, he is coaching Mei Xi, one of his students from the United States. Under Master Chen’s coaching, Mei Xi’s Taijiquan form looks authentic.

“My Chinese name is Mei Xi, it is the first time I come to Chenjiagou,” She said. On February 5th, 2018, she first visited Chenjiagou and started to study Taijiquan from Mr. Chen since then. “People in Chenjiagou was extremely nice and I found the origin of Taijiquan here. I love Taijiquan, I love China, and I will definitely visit here again.”

Compare to Mei Xi, the 41-year-old Joe from the United Kingdom is more like an old company to Chenjiagou.

Joe’s Chinese name is Chen Shaolong, he first came to Chenjiagou for Taijiquan study was in 2001. Since then, he spent 70% of his time to stay here and practice Taijiquan. “The first time I saw Taijiquan, I thought it was simple and a little bit childish… After 17 years of study, now I can only say that I just learned some basic movement of Taijiquan.” Joe said, “Chenjiagou is my second hometown and for him, Taijiquan is the key for him to know China and Chinese culture.”

Joe also talked about the development of Taijiquan and Chenjiagou, “Many foreigners know about Taijiquan, but far less people know the place of Chenjiagou. I think Chenjiagou and the people here should put more effort on promoting their culture to the world and let more people know this place, come and visit here, so that they can experience the Tai Chi culture here.” Joe said, “After these year’s development, I think Chenjiagou has becoming more and more ‘international’ and I wish the best of Chenjiagou!”

Kung Fu Brand is “Storing Energy, Ready to Punch Again”

The expectation of Chen Shaolong is approaching us.

At the 2018 provincial work conference of Henan Province, Jiang Jiding, Head of Henan Provincial Tourism Bureau, pointed out, “In 2018, we need to create the third Chinese tourism brand out of Henan’s Kung Fu, after the Great Wall and pandas, striving to turn Shaolin Kung Fu, Taijiquan and acrobatics into refined internationalized tourism products.”

The village Chenjiagou with the reputation of “A village is the history of Taijiquan”, ushers in a new development opportunity!

The path of Taijiquan’s Kung Fu brand shines!

In fact, in order to constantly strengthen the promotion of Jiaozuo’s tourism image and increasingly expand its international tourist source market, the biennial session “The 9th China Jiaozuo Taijiquan Exchange Competition and Yuntai Mountain Tourism Festival” turned out to be an extravaganza for Taiji practitioners from around the world. At the “One Competition One Festival” event, the birthplace of Taijiquan has become popular and is quickly moving along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It has become trendy in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, so that the exhibitions and performances of 10,000,000 people from 100 cities from around the globe are taking place in the whole world.

Last year, leaders of Jiaozuo led a delegation and paid a special visit to the United States and Canada, and launched international cultural and tourism communication and friendly city visits, and arrived at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. He spoke about pushing forward Taijiquan’s application for the World Heritage and strengthening Jiaozuo’s tourism brand promotion. Jiaozuo, the birthplace of Taiji, held the “World’s Taiji City - Zhongyuan Health Field” tourism promotion meeting in New York, and set up two China’s Taiji Birthplace Jiaozuo Tourism Publicity and Promotion Centers in Los Angeles and Toronto. It is the first time that Jiaozuo city has set up tourism publicity and promotion centers in Europe and the Americas.

In December of Last year, Henan Provincial Tourism Bureau successfully held the establishment meeting of Chinese Kung Fu’s Tourism Brand Promotion Assistance Body. Later on, international travel businesspeople entered Jiaozuo to experience Taijiquan. Henan Provincial Tourism Bureau compiled the “Origin of China” Henan Boutique Travel Route Promotion Special Document, listing Chenjiagou as one strongly recommended Henan Kung Fu international travel route, and Yuntai Mountain as one strongly recommended landscape international travel route... Jiaozuo was complimented as the “Best Cultural Tourism Destination 2017” by China National Travel magazine.

More than 300 million people from all over the world now practice Taijiquan, and Taiji culture has become a unique brand and is moving from Jiaozuo to the entire nation of China and the whole world.

Chenjiagou is no longer the previous Chenjiagou.

It is reported that there are more than 60 Taijiquan martial arts schools in Wenxian County, with more than 600 Taiji masters. Among them, more than 400 teach Taiji all year round. Masters like Chen Xiaowang and Chen Zhenglei not only teach Taijiquan in different areas of China, but also travel abroad to spread Taiji culture, teaching Taijiquan in more than 150 countries and regions of the world. As an intangible symbol of Chinese traditional culture, Taijiquan has become a channel for Chinese culture to communicate with other cultures.

In recent years, with all its efforts spent in building the “World Taiji City” and “Taiji Holy Land”, Wenxian County’s Chenjiagou Cultural Tourist Resort has further strengthened its tourism development. The resort has accomplished the renovation of Chenjiagou’s old village and Wangting Street facade, carried out the renovation of the Chinese Taiji Museum and Donggou, renovated and expanded Yangluchen Taijiquan School, reconstructed the former residences of the past famous people, launched the “Return of the Masters” project, and so on. Therefore, Chenjiagou has gained a new look. Chenjiagou has been actively questing for strategic collaboration, and signed collaboration agreements with IDG Capital, an international investment giant, and Zhongyuan Yuzi Investment Holding Group; through collaboration, the resort and Enjoyor Complany Limited have developed the “Taiji Cloud” platform and “Taiji Bao” App; through collaboration, the resort and Physical Education College of Zhengzhou University have launched the preparatory construction work of Henan Taiji Academy; and the resort has signed the Zhaobao Township Featured Township Collaboration Agreements with China Railway Construction Investment Group Cooperation Limited and others. The tourism industrial development of Taiji culture has obviously improved...

Make “Taiji Kung Fu” powerful with an origin and a soul... Chenjiagou is storing energy, ready to move forward with so much confidence. When building a Chinese national comprehensive tourism demonstration city in Jiaozuo and a famous city of international cultural tourism, Jiaozuo will uphold its Taiji brand, so that developing Kung Fu travel will become the most influential aspect of the city to expand its tourism market and promote its tourism brand.