Shaolin Temple – Mt Song Henan Province:
We have just caught the fast train from Beijing to Zhongzhou.
Zhongzhou has lots of pollution, heaps of bikes, cars and buses everywhere.
We take a quick tour of the Yellow river before relaxing for the night.
Tomorrow is our pilgrimage to the Shaolin Temple.
Can’t believe I will walk on the same paths as our great ancestors, Jee Shin, Ng Mui, Bak Mei.
What a privilege this is going to be.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be standing on this sacred ground at Mount Song.
We leave around 10am and arrive into the tourist area, shops selling tea and trinkets.
It’s not familiar, I’ve seen the Shaolin Temple so many times in photo’s.
Our first stop is a Kung Fu show, we follow the path, past the huge training grounds.
There are hundreds of students training a mixture of swords, pole, acrobats and empty hand
Amazing. What an awesome sight.
We get great seats for the show, right in front of the stage.
The Shaolin Monks perform some incredible feats during their performances.
They are so light, flexible and fast, oh so fast. It is so inspiring.
We watch transfixed as one monk throws a needle straight threw a piece of Perspex.
The Jee Shin Wing Chun Students were mesmerized.
Our guide suggests we go to the local restaurant for lunch before checking out the temple.
We catch a couple of vans up the mountain to a small group of houses and the eatery.
It’s like something out of the documentary ‘Wild China’.
As we approach, ones senses are filled with the wondrous smell of Chinese cooking.
The local food was delicious, so many varied dishes.
With our bellies full we are now ready for our adventure to the Temple.
We walk over a small bridge and there it is, that familiar sight, The Shaolin Temple entrance.
I recognize it immediately.
The path under our feet leading up to the entrance is made of slate and is shinny from all the footsteps.
They have been placed upon them over hundreds of years. They look polished.
You can tell that the pine and fir trees are so old.
They have that beautiful ancient windswept look about them.
Wow so many tourists, there is no peace for the monks here now.
We try and get a group shot on the steps of the temple.
The Chinese tourists have realized we are a Kung Fu group by the calligraphy on our jackets.
They keep jumping into our photo so they can get a photo with us. It’s funny.
The Chinese just love there Kung Fu heritage.
We finally get our group photo and enter the grounds.
A small chill runs through me as I step over the threshold.
We walk past the great statues of the North, South, East and West guardians.
They look fierce.
The first thing you notice is this huge old tree.
It has a lot of small holes in it.
The guide explains they are bullet holes from the Japanese invasion.
The ingenious monks used these holes to jab their fingers into for strengthening.
The holes are smooth and deep from the repetitive finger jabbing.
To see this tree and more photo’s go to my face book page.
In this courtyard the trees seem older.
There are some incredibly beautiful marble statues of turtles and lions.
The turtles heads are very shinny.
They have been rubbed by thousands of hands over the years.
Sifu Garry and Sifu Linda practice some wing chun chi sao and perform wing chun form, Chum Kiu.
We become surrounded by Chinese tourists taking photo’s as we perform.
They love it. We get the group together and find a quiet spot to practice Sil Lim Tao.
Again we get a big crowd observing.
There are a few monks walking around and they stop and watch us for awhile.
I feel quite privileged.
We walked past the pagoda forest on our way to the cable car to the top of Mount Song.
They were beautiful, it seemed such a peaceful place.
A few of us ride the cable car to the top of the mountain.
There is snow on them there hills and its cold.
Wow what a view, we are on top of the world and it is freezing.
As we gaze across the mountain side we notice a temple etched into the side of the mountain.
It would take about 3 hours to walk there.
It looks like something from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Wow would I love to go there.
Unfortunately its a 2 and a half hour walk to get there and the Shaolin Temple closes at Five.
We have no time.
We meet back up with the rest of the group at the tea house around 4.30pm.
After buying some trinkets we catch our bus back to the Motel.
Wow, what a day.
