打太极拳(dǎ tài jí quán) - to practise tai chi in Mandarin

打太极拳 (dǎ tài jí quán) means to practise tai chi, from 打 (dǎ, to do, to perform, here used the way English uses "do" for a martial art) and 太极拳 (tài jí quán, tai chi, literally "supreme ultimate fist", from the yin-yang concept 太极, tài jí, plus 拳, quán, fist, boxing). Martial arts generally take 打 (dǎ) as their verb, the same character that shows up in 打拳 (dǎ quán), to box or shadow-box.

太极拳 (tài jí quán) has its own life in English as "tai chi", usually shortened from the pinyin 太极 (tài jí) alone, so the full Mandarin compound with 拳 (quán, fist) attached looks longer on the page than the familiar English borrowing suggests.

It is strongly associated with older people exercising in parks first thing in the morning, a scene worth knowing for reading and listening material about Chinese daily life: 很多老人在公园里打太极拳 (hěn duō lǎo rén zài gōng yuán lǐ dǎ tài jí quán), "many elderly people practise tai chi in the park". The AQA gloss for this entry gives "taiqi", an informal romanisation; the word itself is unaffected, but "tai chi" is the standard English spelling to use in writing.