Cheng Tinghua was a very open martial artist who would teach his Bagua to anyone who cared to learn it. He enjoyed meeting other martial artists to compare styles and share the and theories of martial arts. He also enjoyed sharing his Baguazhang skill with other martial artists. Cheng is said to have been the person responsible for teaching Baguazhang to Liu Dekuan, Li Cunyi, and Zhang Zhaodong, however, since they were very skilled in Xingyi Quan and thus were Cheng's peers, he did not feel right calling them his “students.” Therefore, Cheng said that they should say they learned their Bagua from his teacher, Dong Haichuan.