Daoyin & Qigong Retreat at Le Puget Beginners

 6 Days/ 7 Nights -Sunday May 17th - Sunday 24th 2026 Retreat

Training days begin evening 17th May to Friday 23rd May inclusive

 

Feixia Yu

In this six-day Daoyin and Qigong retreat, the participants will learn several qigong routines, i, including an in-depth study of Emei Shenzhangong (Mt Emei Medical Daoyin), Six Healing Sounds, The Eight Brocades, The Five Animal Frolics, as well as various forms of ancient and medieval therapeutic exercises known as daoyin based on the 2nd century BCE text entitled Yinshu (Book of Pulling), and the 7th-century state-sponsored medical text entitled Zhubing yuanhou lun (Treatise on the Origins and Symptoms of Medical Disorders). This is a special retreat where little-known ancient and medieval therapeutic exercises will be taught alongside contemporary Qigong practices. The daily intensive qigong sessions will be led by Feixia Yu, a renowned Qigong teacher in the UK. There will be lectures on the history of therapeutic exercise in ancient and medieval China by Professor Vivienne Lo and Dr Dolly Yang; and in the evenings we will show martial arts films.

This retreat is led by Feixia Yu, Professor Vivienne Lo, and Dr Dolly Yang.

Feixia Yu is an award-winning practitioner and teacher of many styles of Taiji and Qigong and a senior instructor at the British Health Qigong Association. In September last year she won first prize in th Ba Duan Jin section of the European Health Qigong Games. She originally qualified as an Exercise and Recuperation Instructor at Beijing Sport University and now runs weekly Taiji and Qigong classes on-line and in person with open lectures and workshops on the Chinese health enhancement tradition. She regularly features in local media including BBC Radio Lancashire and the Lancashire Evening Posts on various aspects of Chinese culture. She also designs and delivers corporate wellbeing events. Her area of research interests is in Qigong as an exercise intervention tool for a range of conditions including Long Covid, hypertension, Parkinson’s, and spine misalignment.

For a video about Feixia Yu and her work, click here

Vivienne Lo is Professor in the Department of History at UCL. For more than twenty years she has been teaching the Ancient and Medieval history of China and specialist modules in the History of Asian Medicine and Classical Chinese Medicine at BSc and MA. Vivienne's core research concerns the social and cultural origins of acupuncture, therapeutic exercise, and food and medicine. She translates and analyses manuscript material from Early and Medieval China, and publishes on the transmission of scientific knowledge along the so-called Silk Roads. She has a long-term interest in visual cultures of medicine and healthcare. Current projects include a history of nutrition in China.

Dolly Yang is a researcher in the History of Chinese medicine. Her main research explores the social and cultural aspects of bodily practices in pre-modern China. She received her PhD in 2018 from University College London, UK for her investigation into the institutionalisation of therapeutic exercise in Sui China (581–618 CE). She was a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, between 2020 and 2021. Her current projects include writing a book on therapeutic exercises from the 7th-century Chinese medical text Zhubing yuanhou lun. The book will be published later this year by Purple Cloud Institute with illustrations by Jessica Chiang.

Daily Schedule

7:00 – 9:00 am Health Qigong

9:00 – 10:00 am Breakfast

10:30 – 12:30 pm Ancient/Medieval Daoyin

1:00 – 2:00 pm Lunch

2:00 – 4:00 pm Break

4:00 – 6:00 pm Health Qigong

7:00 – 8:00 pm Dinner

Dates

The retreat begins on the evening of Sunday 17th May 2026.

Check-in after 5 pm on Saturday 17th May 2026.

The retreat ends with a farewell and dinner at 7 pm on 23rd May 2026.

Check-out by 10 am on 24th May 2026.

Pricing

Duration Twin-Share Room Private Room

6 days/7 nights £1000 £1200

Day rate £50 (meals extra)

Pricing includes:

  • 6 days of retreat activities as per schedule above

  • 6 days of all meals and drinks with a full vegan/vegetarian menu

  • 6 days/7 nights of accommodation with en-suite bathroom (except two twin rooms with separate bathroom)

  • Walks/Swimming

Extras: Riding, cycling, excursions in the Pyrenees

Travel: The closest airport is Carcassonne, with Toulouse-Blagnac a little further. Both are within the hour, with Carcassonne a small airfield and a pleasant drive to Le Puget through the vineyards. We can normally arrange airport transfers for around 30 euros if we can coordinate three or four guests arriving at the same time.

For further enquiries please email Vivienne at ucgavlo@gmail.com