My Experience of Practicing Qi Gong 1 In the 1980s and 1990s, the “Qi Gong” fever swept the entire country. Suddenly, there were a lot of “Qi Gong” masters appeared allegedly from deep mountains and remote areas, and intended to teach Chinese the mysterious, ancient and powerful practice which they learned from their parents who learned it from their parents who learned it from their parents… You can go on and on and on. Everybody was talking about it, or practicing it, even in my hometown, a small and remote city in China. In 1988, a man called Tian Ruisheng(田瑞生) claimed he was the only successor who learned the secret of Fragrant Qi Gong (香功), which had been practiced in his family for 2000 years. According to him, Fragrant Qi Gong was based on Buddhism—although it had been only 2000 years since Buddhism was first introduced to China. Back then the Fragrant Qi Gong was one of the most popular Qi Gong in China. When I was just a kid, my parents would take me to practice it with the entire neighborhood every night, which was supposed to make me healthier and stronger. It was said that if one practiced it to a high level, he/she could smell rich odors of different flowers. It might be different odors to different people. Being able to smell something out from nowhere was really appealing to me. Every time the leader—a very nice lady which would make delicious meat sauces for me—would ask us, “I have smelled it! Today it is Jasmine! Have you smelled it? Have you?” And people would answer her, “Yes! Yes! It’s rose!” “Yes, it is so sweet!” And I never smelled anything. NEVER! Not a single time. Every time there were some adults claiming they smelled different kinds of fragrances, but no matter how hard I tried, there was never anything for me.