January Volunteer of the Month: Yong Liu, Tai Chi Fitness Instructor

Logan Park resident Yong Liu started the Tai Chi Fitness Class at Blakely Hall in early 2017. At the time, it was the only free tai chi class in the greater Issaquah area.

“I wanted to use this class not only to help community residents in Issaquah Highlands know and learn tai chi for their fitness purposes, but also to help the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank collect free-will donations,” he said.

Since then, many residents have visited his class and hundreds of pounds of non-perishable food have been donated. Two of his students, John and Robert, consistently attend the weekly classes on Wednesday mornings.

“I am happy that they like the class and benefit from the weekly tai chi practice,” Yong said. “We welcome anyone who would like to learn tai chi to join us!”

Yong learned Chen-style tai chi at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign about 20 years ago. In the summer of 2012, his family moved from Illinois to Washington state for work.

As part of his relocation package, Yong was assigned a temporary house in Issaquah Highlands by his employer. He also discovered that an old lab mate from graduate school lived in the community as well.

“We thought it was such a blessing to have some old friends living nearby, so we decided to look for a house in Issaquah Highlands after we moved out of the temporary house,” he said. “We have since lived in Issaquah Highlands for more than 10 years now.”

Yong says he loved the urban design of Issaquah Highlands as well as the community gardens, endless trails and parks, short walk to school, and the park-and-ride. He will often jog around the trails or walk with his family at Grand View Park.

“I completed my first half marathon race on the hilly Grand Ridge Trail, which made my second half marathon race on the flat road so much easier,” Yong noted.

His family is also active with the Evangelical Chinese Church in Redmond, where he serves as a small group leader and the Treasurer Deacon. Yong and his wife also serve in the marriage and family ministry in the church.

Yong and his wife have two kids: a daughter in college and a son at Issaquah High School. His family enjoys going to church, playing board games together and traveling together. During the summer of 2019, they spent three weeks traveling from Seattle to London to Moscow to China and back.

“Thank you, Issaquah Highlands, for providing all the support—including the beautiful Blakely Hall for community events—and each group leaders’ time and effort to make Issaquah Highlands the most livable place. This is the community we really love and enjoy!”

 Yong Liu is a Logan Park resident and the Tai Chi Fitness Class instructor at Blakely Hall. Stop by a class on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30 a.m. He encourages attendees to bring non-perishable food donations for the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank.