We were up early and on the racquetball courts again at 6 a.m. to go over our group demonstration forms, Tai Chi, Hsing I five elements and Hsing-I animals. We had a good run through and then all went up to the breakfast buffet.

We got on the bus and left at 8 once again for the competition location. Several Cheng Ming organization administrators and local politicians had arrived for today’s opening ceremony, and we all listened to several speeches. There was also a performance by a local high school symphony with Chinese instruments which was extremely impressive. There were both solo and orchestra selections.

The performance space was then set up for demonstrations. First there was a Push Hands demonstration by the Texas Cheng Ming School, which included three different matches. Eric and James from the Texas school then demonstrated sparring with applications. Next the leaders of all the schools demonstrated several advanced forms. There were staff, sword, saber, and spear demos. Master Hiromi demonstrated a beautiful Ba Gua sword form. It was both humbling and inspiring to see these masters move.

We took a break for lunch, and then the floor was set up for the group demonstrations. The group T’ai Chi competition was first. Our school was actually selected to go first and we felt good about how we did. It was really interesting to watch all the other schools demonstrate their T’ai Chi forms. It was obvious that there was a lot of expertise at each one of the schools in all the demonstrations. The next category was the Five Elements form. We again took our place and marched out for our demonstration which went fine. The final category was the animal forms. There were four schools that had entered this category and we were third. We were both happy with how we did and also relieved to be done.

Once all of the forms were completed, Grandmaster then spoke about some of the martial arts aspects of our system. He then took questions from all the participants. People asked questions about both the health benefits and martial arts applications of our system.

We got on the buses to go to dinner and had another great meal together. Some people went to the Taichung night market and others went on to bed. Another full and exciting day!