After yet another late train and a slow bus, we made it to Shaolin Temple, home of the world-famous kung-fu. Due to transportation delays, we had to find a hotel (a very cold and overpriced hotel at that) and enter the next morning. It was actually lucky that we did, for we got to young students doing their morning jogs with very few other tourists around. The temple was quiet and had a nice, light snowfall.
As any guidebook can tell you, tourism has hit Shaolin full force, with crappy t-shirts and blunt weapons for sale everywhere, but Shaolin is still a fully functioning temple and I'm glad that it is. With the Chinese economy on the up, tickets were more than we thought they would be, but they now include a thirty minute show involving form and weapon demonstrations, flexiblity showcases, and feats of will, like breaking iron slabs over heads, four-fingered handstands, and throwing a pin through a plane of glass to break a balloon. The pin trick really blew my mind.
Shaolin was great and I'm extremely glad that I went. I've loved it for its kung-fu since I saw my first kung-fu movies like most others who come here, and while they do capitalize on that for profit, the temples and lifestyles revolve around Buddhism. It was a good reminder that while the kung-fu is great, it would be unattainable without years of meditation and spiritual self-control.
If you are ever in the area, get there. If you can do it with a light cover of snow, even better.
As any guidebook can tell you, tourism has hit Shaolin full force, with crappy t-shirts and blunt weapons for sale everywhere, but Shaolin is still a fully functioning temple and I'm glad that it is. With the Chinese economy on the up, tickets were more than we thought they would be, but they now include a thirty minute show involving form and weapon demonstrations, flexiblity showcases, and feats of will, like breaking iron slabs over heads, four-fingered handstands, and throwing a pin through a plane of glass to break a balloon. The pin trick really blew my mind.
Shaolin was great and I'm extremely glad that I went. I've loved it for its kung-fu since I saw my first kung-fu movies like most others who come here, and while they do capitalize on that for profit, the temples and lifestyles revolve around Buddhism. It was a good reminder that while the kung-fu is great, it would be unattainable without years of meditation and spiritual self-control.
If you are ever in the area, get there. If you can do it with a light cover of snow, even better.