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Beijing Wushu Team

The Wushu Beijing Team

The Beijing Wushu Team was founded in November 1974 as a successor to the Beijing Wushu School. The Beijing Wushu School was created in order to prepare the city of Beijing for the First All China Games, Beijing Sports University (now Beijing Physical Education University).

In 1963 Beijing Sports University graduate Wu Bin came to the school as a coach bringing new vitality into the sports school and establishing the foundation for the Beijing Team's later success. In 1964, after poor results at the National competition, Wu Bin, Wang Jinsheng and the other coaches set out a plan to create a gold medal team. Their plan was to start from a young age, select promising athletes and follow a rigid, comprehensive, scientific system of coaching. Within a year, through much hard work and effort by Wu Bin, at a citywide competition, his athletes won second in the women's empty hand, short and long weapons.

During the Cultural Revolution, the athletes continued to train. In 1970 they were approved to establish the amateur wushu office. By this time Wu Bin was already appointed to the Wushu research society and Beijing City Wushu Association. Wu Bin utilized the resources of Beijing's traditional martial arts masters as well as the wealth of skill from across china in his coaching, increasing his athlete's wushu level.

In November of 1972, at the National Wushu competition, 12 athletes from Beijing attended, and nine won championships (out of a total 0f 13). Because of their hard work and achievements and with the strong support of Beijing Sports Director Wei Ming, the amateur sports school's reputation grew daily and the level of the athletes improved further. In November of 1974 the Beijing Wushu Team was founded and quickly dominated the National competitions, undoubtedly due to Wu Bin's diligence and hard work.

There were originally 28 people in the team: 3 coaches, Wu Bin, Cheng Huikun and Li Jinfeng. 25 athletes, 12 men and 13 women: The men's team included Li Lianjie (Jet Li), Li Zhizhou, Wang Jianjun, Li Jinheng, Yu Shaowen, Wang Qun, Yan Ping, Dong Honglin, Sun Jianming, Tang Laiwei, Cui Yahui and Yang Yongli. The women's team included Ge Chunyan, Li Xia, Hao Zhihua,  Zhang Hongmei, Luu Yan, Hui Xuna, Huang Qiuyan, Zhou Jingping, Zhang Guifeng, Mi Jin, Wang Xiuping, Huang Xiaofeng and Zhang Dehua. Since then team members and coaches have changed and the team has evolved. Many retired athletes have continued on as coaches helping foster the next generation of athletes.

In the nearly three decades since, through the hard work of the athletes and coaches, the level of success has reached great levels. From 1974 to 1997, they won the National team championship 11 times. Finishing in the top 6 places 526 times: of those, 147 were golds, 108 silver and 96 bronze and bringing honor to the city of Beijing.