Shaolin Temple Mexico Retreat 2011

The Shaolin Temple’s Mexico’s 2011 Annual Retreat with Shifu Shi Yan Ming was the most exciting yet. This retreat, which brings the Chinese martial arts community of Mexico together in friendship, was attended by students from all over the country and the world – from Los Angeles and New York to Span and South America. This has become such a popular event that it maxed out the capacity of the Monastery where the retreat is held. The retreat pushed the limit at 150 attendees, and at that point people had to be turned down.

Shifu arrived a day before the retreat with several disciples and students from the Temple in New York to spend a few hours with the Mexican students who welcomed him with a demonstration of gongfu and taiji quan. After the big welcome, Shifu was interviewed by MVS TV. Later that evening, everyone gathered for a screening of “Kung Fu Monk”, the National Geographic documentary that chronicles Shifu’s life and his arrival in the US.

The next morning, it was time to begin training! At the break of dawn, the students woke to the soft chime of the gong. Basic training began at 5:45am. After breakfast, Shifu led the group in learning Yijin Jing (Muscle and Tendon Changing Sutra), Rou Quan (Soft fist) and Xinyi Quan (Heart – Mind fist). In the afternoons, Shifu led more gongfu training and taught san shou exercises for the first time outside of NY. Later, Heng Xu, a member of the USA Shaolin Temple demo team who had accompanied Shifu on the trip, led the group in learning Hu Quan (Tiger Claw form).

The retreat ended with an emotional award ceremony and group photo, serenaded by a traditional mariachi band. The students were excited and grateful at the huge amount of physical and spiritual philosophy they had learned over the weekend. While 2011 was the best retreat yet, next year’s will mark the 8th anniversary of Shifu Shi Yan Ming spreading the authentic Shaolin Chan philosophy or martial arts in Mexico. The Shaolin Temple Mexico will be preparing a huge celebration full of surprises. Stay tuned on our website and facebook pages, as well as our newsletter for all the details.