"Most people want to learn the saber. I think it's because they know it from Zorro."

-----Wu Ning
Owner and Founder, Fen Xing

Armed with electric swords and shrouded behind metal masks, two men in white salute each other, before squaring off to fight.

This scene may seem like something out of Star Wars, but it is the centuries-old art of fencing and it can now be found in Beijing.

Walk into the Beijing Fen Xing Club and you will hear the crisp clash of steel sabers as dueling students leap forward in attack and backwards in defense. Located in the basement of the China Sports Museum, Fen Xing is not only the first but also the only fencing club in all China, offering training in the three fencing arts: foil, epee and saber.

"Most people want to learn the saber," said Wu Ning, owner and founder of Fen Xing. "I think it's because they know it from Zorro."

Wu opened Fen Xing this April and now boasts more than 50 students. The former China patent office worker designed Fen Xing to give off an air of athletic camaraderie and relaxation. Photographs of famous fencers line the walls of the small bar area where members can relax with a cool drink after a hard night dueling. Racks of fencing swords separate the cafe from the training area. A large practice mirror, used by students to correct their form, rests at one end of the room, and in the middle stand two columns wrapped in cloth for fencers to practice their jabbing skills.

The most interesting piece of equipment is the electronic scoreboard located behind a 14-meter fencing mat. Fencing is known as the fastest of the martial sports, difficult to judge with the human eye. So the scoreboard is wired to contestants' sabers (hence the electric saber) and acts as a referee, flashing red and green lights to electronically tally points.

The rules of a fencing match are complicated, explained David Li, who practiced fencing in high school and as a student at Boston University. A judge has to take into consideration advantages and disadvantages, like who was the first to attack, for example.

"But points are determined as it seems they would be? Basically, who hits who first," he said.

Dressed in protective fencing gear, which appears to be a combination of thick leotard over pants, Li watches a practice match between friends while a class practices movements like the parry (block) and riposte (attack after a block) in the center of the room. A beginners' saber course runs for eight sessions. Students first learn how to hold the saber, how to walk with it, and eventually how to attack and defend. By the third class, beginning saber students were already sporting wire helmets and dueling it out with safety sabers on the fencing mat.

"It's perfect after a long day of work," said Wang Jian, a member of the Wednesday night saber class, as he waited in line to practice jabbing at a fencing dummy.

Tian Yuchaun, the club's prize trainer, teaches beginning saber and gives private lessons for advanced students. Two younger, less-experienced instructors teach the foil. Tian, a large, soft-spoken man, started training at 15 years old when he was chosen to represent the Beijing fencing team. Since then, he has represented China in two international fencing competitions and countless national competitions.

"He (Tian) is very nice and very professional," said Ricardo Farina, an Italian who trained in both France and his home country before coming Beijing. "I have trained for a long time, so I know,"

Farina, who arrived in Beijing over a year ago, said he was disappointed when he arrived to discover that there was no place for him to practice fencing here. He contacted the Beijing Olympic fencing team and was offered the chance to use their training grounds, but they were open only during working hours and located far outside the city. Needless to say, Farina joined Fen Xing right after he learned about its opening in April.

None of the fencing trainers speak a second language, although Tian knows all the fencing terms in French * but this has not deterred more than 20 foreigners who take classes there. "I translate if necessary," said Wu, who speaks English.

"The biggest problem we have run into is that many Chinese are not interested in fencing," said Wu of his biggest potential clientele. "Perhaps they know about fencing from novels, Shakespeare or movies, but modern fencing sports they don't understand."

But when asked if he thinks his club will succeed, Wu is taken aback. "Of course!" he says.

Beijing Fen Xing Fencing Club

Add: No 3 Anding Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing 100101

Tel: 86(0)10-6492.9041, 6491.2233 ext. 480