SJF Kung Fu School provides short-term and long-term authentic Chinese Kung Fu training to international students around the world.
A quote can look complete and still leave out half the stay. Anyone who plans to Learn Kung Fu China style, with months of daily practice rather than a holiday class, should know that before paying a deposit. The visa, the airport pickup, the practice sword and the extra month you decide on halfway through all belong in the budget. At SJF Kung Fu School, we would rather you arrive with a clear number and a calm mind than discover the gaps in week three.
The Chinese word gongfu means skill earned through time and effort. Your budget is really a budget of time, so it needs a boundary before any figure goes into it.
For this article the boundary is:
One adult student staying between one and six months. The one week course sits at the short end of that range.
One currency, the one your written quote is issued in. Do not add a dollar figure to a euro figure and call it a total.
Training in a named set of styles, such as Tai Chi, Zhan Zhuang or weapons work, because the styles shape what you need to bring or buy.
Outside the boundary: international flights and travel insurance. They depend on your home city, so price them separately.
This article does not publish tuition figures. We have no confirmed price list to quote here, and an invented number would be worse than none. What we can do is show you which items exist, which repeat each month, and which questions turn a vague quote into a usable one.
Use this structure for any stay between one month and six:
Total stay cost = Tuition + Lodging + Meals + Local spending (all for your exact length of stay) + Visa fees + Airport transfers + Equipment
Do not simply multiply a one month price by six. Tuition for a long stay may be quoted as its own package, so ask for the total for your exact dates in writing. Lodging, meals and local spending do repeat every month. Visa fees, transfers and equipment mostly happen once.
| Component | How it behaves from 1 to 6 months | Status | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition | Set by course length and the styles you study | Quote dependent | Is the total for my exact dates stated in writing? |
| Lodging | Recurs every month | Quote dependent | Is it included in tuition or charged separately, and is it per person or per room? |
| Meals | Recurs every month | Quote dependent | Which meals are provided, and what will I buy myself? |
| Visa fees | Usually one-off, but a longer stay may need a different visa type or an extension | Depends on passport and length of stay | Which visa type matches my dates? Check with the official consulate. |
| Airport transfers | One-off, usually arrival and departure | Quote dependent | Is pickup offered both ways, and from which airport or station? |
| Equipment | Mostly paid at the start | Your estimate | Are uniforms and practice weapons provided, or must I buy them? |
| Local spending | Recurs every month | Your estimate | What will laundry, phone data and weekend visits to nearby sites add up to? |
Confirmed: the program lengths on offer (one week, one month, three months, six months and long term), no minimum enrollment for regular classes, a minimum of 2 students for group bookings, and an indoor training hall of 200㎡ for practice in any weather.
Your own estimates: local spending and any equipment you choose to buy.
Unresolved until you hold a written quote: tuition, lodging, meals, transfers, and the visa cost for your passport.
A confirmed cost driver is not a confirmed price. Keep those two ideas apart in your spreadsheet.
The biggest lever is time. A One Week Kung Fu Course keeps recurring costs small and is a sensible test of fit. A longer stay raises the monthly items but spreads the one-off items, such as the visa and transfers, across more training days. The limit is that a week rarely shows what a month does. We come back to this below.
Hayley Noel from the UK trained for 120 days in Tai Chi, Zhan Zhuang, Sword and Broadsword. Klaes Risbjerg Simonsen from Denmark studied Tai Chi, Zhan Zhuang and Broadsword for 30 days. Weapons work raises one practical question: are practice weapons provided, or do you buy your own? Whether an extra style changes tuition is a quote question too, so do not assume either way.
Andrew Williams from the USA spent 30 days training Tai Chi, Zhan Zhuang and Dao Fa with his son. When two people travel together, per-person items such as tuition, lodging and visas double. A pickup vehicle may be shared. Ask for both numbers rather than guessing.
Visa rules depend on your passport and your dates, and we cannot quote them for you. A six month stay may need different paperwork from a one month stay. Treat the visa as an open item until you have checked it with official sources.
We will not invent prices, but we can show how the shape of the budget changes using two real stay lengths from our students. Klaes stayed 30 days. Hayley stayed 120 days, about four months. The comparison shows where the weight of the budget sits, not what either of them paid.
| Budget line | 30 day stay | 120 day stay |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition | One quoted amount for 30 days | One quoted amount for 120 days (request it as a single figure) |
| Lodging and meals | Counted for 1 month | Counted for 4 months |
| Visa fees | Counted once | Counted once, plus any extension if required |
| Airport transfers | Counted once or twice | Counted once or twice |
| Equipment | Counted once | Counted once |
| Local spending | 1 month of your habits | 4 months of your habits |
The lesson is plain. In a short stay the one-off items take a large share of the total. In a four month stay the monthly items dominate, so a small error in your daily spending estimate becomes a large error in the final figure. Spend your care where the multiplication happens.
If you would like this table filled in with real figures for your own dates, send us your length of stay and the styles you wish to study, and we will answer with a written breakdown.
Comparing tuition alone. Two quotes are comparable only when both state what lodging, meals and transfers include.
Multiplying a one month price by six. Long stays may be quoted as their own package. Ask for the total.
Forgetting the visa until the end. The fee and the paperwork both depend on your dates.
Leaving weapons off the list. If you plan sword or broadsword work, settle whether you buy or borrow.
Treating the cheapest stay as the best stay. A lower total can be a perfectly good choice. A stay too short to settle into may cost more in disappointment than it saves in money.
Mixing currencies. Convert everything into one currency, on one date, and note the date.
Shortening or simplifying a stay is not a compromise of integrity. Pamela Paes Ezawa from Brazil and Othmane Echaouki with his wife from France both completed 7-day Chen style Tai Chi courses. Pamela valued the traditional training environment and the welcoming Shifu. Othmane's message to Master Shen was warm: "Thank you, Shifu, for taking such good care of all the students." A week can introduce you to the form and the place, and it lets you judge the school before committing months.
There is a limit, though. Austin Erkl from the USA completed 30 days of Tai Chi and Sword and admitted he did not love it at first. After adjusting, he had a great time and said he made lifelong memories. A one week visit may end before that adjustment arrives. Chen style Tai Chi, Learn Tai Chi in China, rewards patience, and so does Zhan Zhuang, the standing practice where you hold a posture and watch your body settle. Martial virtue, Wu De, begins with this kind of patience.
Practical ways to keep a budget under control without weakening the training:
Start with a week if you are unsure of the school, the food or the climate.
Choose two or three styles rather than every style on offer, so your time and any equipment needs stay focused.
Move up to a longer stay once you know you belong here. The Three-Month Kung Fu Course suits students ready to go past first impressions, and Long Term Kung Fu Training is for those who intend to stay through the slow, quiet part of learning.
Two supported facts have a real cost consequence. First, the 200㎡ indoor hall means a rainy day is still a training day, so the days you pay for are days you practice. Second, Master Shen Jiangfei is the 11th generation inheritor of Chen style Tai Chi and a descendant of Liuhe Quan, so your tuition buys direct teaching from a lineage holder. Klaes noted that the Shifu was highly qualified and adapted the training to his needs. We cannot turn that into a percentage saving, and we will not pretend to.
You need the same facts from every school you ask, including us. Send these five items and request that the reply separates what is included from what is not:
Exact dates or at least the number of weeks or months.
Styles of interest, and whether you want weapons training.
Number of travellers, since group bookings start at 2 students.
Your passport country, so the visa question can be framed correctly.
Your inclusions list: tuition, lodging, meals, transfers and equipment, each marked "included", "extra" or "not offered".
Ask for the reply in one currency, with the date the quote was written. If a line is marked "to be confirmed", note it as an open item rather than rounding it to zero. Many students also find it restful to know that the area near the Shaolin Temple has 30+ cultural and historical sites for free days, so you can plan modest weekend spending in advance.
Next step: read the details of our one month Kung Fu Course, then send SJF Kung Fu School your dates, styles and questions using the contact details on our website. If you are a sincere seeker of traditional Chinese martial arts, we will gladly walk through the budget with you, one line at a time.
You need to pay a $100 deposit in advance. This deposit will be applied toward your school fees. Get Unique Customized Kung Fu Water Bottle for Free!
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