Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TAI CHI IN PARADISE
practice an age-old healing art
EXOTIC BEACHES AROUND THE WORLD
It opened my life to things I never knew existed.
—Sue Rapp, teacher who recently attended a Tai Chi in Paradise vacation
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In 2008 for the very first time, the ancient martial art of tai chi will be an official
Olympic event, and a trio of lucky competitors will win the gold, silver, and bronze medals.
But anyone who practices this gentle, slow-moving martial art could be declared a winner. Ac-
cording to a recent study in the
Archives of Internal Medicine,
the age-old Chinese practice
lowers stress and anxiety, improves balance, and reduces the effects of arthritis, heart prob-
lems, and depression.
In practice, tai chi (or
tai ji quan,
as it's more properly known) is a complex sequence
of flowing postures with names like “White Snake Puts Out Tongue” and “Carry Tiger to
the Mountain.” Its series of movements requires concentration, coordination, and balance. It's
practiced by everyone from 80-year-old heart patients to business executives wanting to learn
strategies for dealing with conflict to
Kung Fu
star David Carradine, who made a how-to tai
chi video.
Chris Luth, a
tai ji sifu
(that's Chinese for “a teacher” and “father figure”) from California,
leads five- to nine-day tai chi vacations. He calls these vacations Tai Chi in Paradise because
he hosts them in such lush Edens as Hawaii, Bali, Costa Rica, and the Canary Islands. They're
usually held on the beach at secluded resorts, near rain forests, waterfalls, and wildlife pre-
serves.
“I made it a policy 20 years or so ago that I was only going to work in places I wanted to
be,” Luth says. “Basically I pick my 'paradises,' places where I can surf and snowboard and
do things I want to do.”
On a recent Hawaii trip, for example, participants stayed at a jungle lodge within earshot
of the ocean on the Big Island. In a virtually untouched setting, they swam with spinner dol-
phins, snorkeled, dove, surfed, soaked in rare oceanside “warm springs,” tried a hula les-
