The Beijing Wushu Team (Chinese: 北京武术队) is a world renowned wushu team from Beijing, China. The team has produced many famous international stars such as Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Huang Qiuyan, Zhang Hongmei and Wu Jing. The Beijing team members also work with movie producers to make films. Aside from Jet Li, many other athletes have also been featured in movies (e.g. Wang Jue has starred in Shaolin Temple.) Every year, the Beijing Team performs demonstrations of wushu for the citizens of Beijing as well as visiting dignitaries. They have performed for former US President Jimmy Carter as well as many other foreign heads of state when they visited Beijing.[1]
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The Beijing Wushu Team was founded in November 1974 by Wu Bin and Li Junfeng 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) wushu department graduate Liu Peiwei was appointed team leader and coach. After the first All China Games, the team found a home at the Beihai Sports Center, with Liu Peiwei serving as the first director.
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 the nearly three decades since its founding, and through the hard work of the athletes and coaches, the team has achieved remarkable levels of success. From 1974 to 1997, they won the National team championship 11 times. From 1975 to 1985, the Beijing Wushu Team achieved a feat that no team has ever accomplished, before or since – winning the championship for ten consecutive years. The Beijing Wushu Team received 40 individual gold medals during this 10 year reign.
Many of the earlier generations of Beijing Wushu Team athletes have gone on to teach wushu abroad. Many have emigrated to the USA, Australia, Japan and other parts of Asia.
The team has showcased its skills through the Beijing Wushu Team Tour many times over the years. The worldwide tours showcase a mix of veteran athletes and rising stars demonstrating their very best routines. As part of a world tour in 1974, Jet Li was reputed to have performed a two-man fight for US President Richard Nixon on the White House lawn. The Beijing team has toured the USA several times in the 1980s and 1990s and into the current century. In 1995 they performed in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley, CA and Calgary, Canada. In 1999 they were invited to perform at Arnold Schwarzenegger's Annual Arnold Classic. The team performed and served as judges for the 1998 and 1999 Collegiate Wushu Championships as well. The 2005 tour saw the team performing in Washington DC, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In January 2012, the team will return to United States with a limited four show tour in the San Francisco Bay area. [2]