Shaolin

Wei Wei, our Shaolin guide met us at the bus station where we hopped on another small coach to our guesthouse in the stunning mountains of Dengfeng. We settled in to our lovely clean rooms before having a great spread group lunch. In the afternoon made our way to one of the training schools, where children learn and train to be Kung Fu masters. This is a Kung Fu Children’s Home run by monks from the Shaolin Temple that specialises in teaching them Kung Fu. As part of this we took some supplies and treats for the kids as well as giving a donation. We were treated to a spectacular outdoor Kungfu show by the children who fully displayed their array of skills. Flips, kicks, spins, the splits, headstands and even pulling them up by a metal circle on their stomachs. They also demonstrated their training with toy swords and sticks as well as knives on chains. Some of the youngsters showed off their strength by doing push ups on two fingers. After the show we got the opportunity to try our hand at learning some Kung fu moves. It was a full workout and was very intense but a lot of fun. We also bought some amazing t-shirts to support the school (although I somehow managed to loose mine straight away!). In the evening we had another delicious group meal before watching Mulan (we just had to!).

In the morning explored around the Shaolin temple complex, looking at the temples and pagodas before going on a hike up into the mountains. In the grounds in general there were lots of young boys showing off their martial arts move, from lots of different schools. The scenery was stunning, heading through lush green forests, surrounded by mountain vistas. The walk up was a slog but eventually all in our own time we made it up to Dharma Cave, with some incredible views of the valley below. This spot is famous as a monk once meditated there for 9 years and is a very spiritual spot for Buddhist pilgrims. On the way back down we saw all of the large stone tomb structures.

Then we headed actually into the grounds of Shaolin temple its, its red walls standing out from the trees in its courtyard. There were lots of people lighting incense and making their prayers into the windows of the temple from outside. From the very serene we then went to watch an indoor Kung Fu show in the complex. This was very loud, brightly light and fast passed. They also ask for audience volunteers where one of our group got picked to join them on stage and battle against others to show off a particular move. Jennifer fully committed to embodying the snake moves which was hilarous! After a jam packed couple of days we got back on the bus, and headed the two hours to the train station. Back onto another night train for the evening, which we got some sleep on, we were pros by this point and in the morning we were in Beijing.

Alex