Shaolin Temple
Templo Shaolin
Shaolin Temple (Deng Feng Da Dao, Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, Henan) – located 971 km. northwest of Shanghai (a 2-hour plane ride), this was the main temple of Shaolin Buddhism in China. It is located near the base of Songshan Mountain near Dengfeng City in Henan Province in central China. The style of Buddhism developed here centered on martial arts training and Zen meditation. The Zen way of meditation practiced by many Japanese originated here as did certain styles of martial arts in East Asian countries. It is thought that the teachers at the temple had a big influence on both the Buddhism and the martial arts in Korea and Japan, but they didn’t have as big an influence in China where there were many other religions and philosophies and martial arts styles. Interestingly, the American TV series “Kung Fu” and various martial arts films made from the 1970s onward, sparked more recent international interest in this site.
Three major things to see are the martial arts performances staged near the entrance, the old architecture further up the mountain and the Forest of Pagodas. It is said that in the early 1900s, 90 percent of the buildings in the big complex were destroyed. What remains is mainly from the Ming and Qing eras. Admission: RMB 100 per person. Hours: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm.