I finally made it. The second stop on my martial arts pilgrimage, after Foshan, was also the most obvious (read about my "pilgrimage" here). The Shaolin Monastery, colloquially called the Shaolin Temple, is a Buddhist Monastery on Mount Song in Henan Province, China. In addition to housing a number of Buddhist monks it is also the historical birthplace of kung fu, although whether or not that's actually true is an argument for another day. Next to the temple is the Tagou Martial Arts School, where, as far as I could tell, the martial artists affiliated with the temple study. The temple is also surrounded by a number of other interesting things that unfortunately get second billing to the temple.

I live at the purple pin. The Shaolin Temple is at the red pin

Zoomed in a little so you can see the provinces.

I had spent many hours during my young adult years watching movies that took place in the Shaolin Temple and looking at pictures of both the area and the martial artists, but it was always so far away. Moving to China changed that and when I decided to come, the Shaolin Temple was at the top of my list of things to see. That being said, I live in the southern part of China and it took over a year for me to finally make my way up north, but when I made time, I made sure that my first stop was the Shaolin Temple.

A quick note before I continue: I know little of Buddhism or it's beliefs and holy people. As such I will refer to statues of painting as "Buddha" even if they may not actually be THE Buddha. Forgive my ignorance.

The Temple

The first thing you notice when you get to the Shaolin Temple is how commercialized it's become. Although it's a little jarring it wasn't unexpected. It's relatively common knowledge now and after thinking about it, it made a lot of made sense. The way the world works now you can't do much without money and the Shaolin Temple is no different. It needed to evolve with the times, and opening itself to tourism allows it to keep doing what they used to do while making enough money to stay open. The entrance is full of souvenir shops and a ticket office, but the mountain opens up once you've scanned your ticket. It's also much bigger than I had expected. The path away from the entrance leads to the Tagou Martial Arts School, then the temple proper, and continues to a number of other things. The temple itself is obviously the main draw. It's consists of a couple of levels (just a short set of stairs to an area slightly higher) each full of buildings, monuments, and residences. When I was there some buildings had monks praying in front of them or singing/chanting inside, some of them were open in front so visitors could pray, some could be entered, and some were closed off. The residences seemed to be off to the sides but I can't be completely sure. If you poke around you can find some people practicing martial arts in some of the open areas. Some of the buildings seem like they need a little bit of repair work done on them, but the major ones seem to be in pretty good condition. Hopefully the area will do well and the smaller buildings can get the love they deserve. A lot of the buildings have pretty intricate carvings around them and there are also a number of stones engraved with names or other events. Although most of the buildings at least look old, the temple has had a tumultuous history and some building have had to be rebuilt, so they may not all be as old as they look. In order to enter the temple you need the ticket that gets you into the mountain. I forgot mine and had to run back to the hotel. Don't forget yours.

Around the Temple

Although the temple is the main draw I don't think it's really the most interesting thing to see on Mount Song. Near the entrance is the Taogou Martial Arts School. Across from the school they put on a martial arts show a couple of times a day that is an excellent example of demonstration choreography and a great watch. Although it's absolutely worth watching make sure you don't go looking for realism, as it's a demonstration for show, not usefulness, (watch some clips of it here). Across from the temple there's a small building full of Buddha statues and next to that is the path up to a tiny village. The village has a couple of restaurants and stores but mostly seems to be for martial arts and tourism. I don't know if the martial artists and the schools in the village are associated with the Shaolin Temple or if they just benefit from being super close, but watching them practice is a good way to relax and pass half an hour or spend some time before bed. If you follow the street past the temple instead of turning towards the village you reach the pagoda forest.

The pagoda forest is, essentially, a cemetery (albeit one with impressive headstones) where important monks from the temple were buried after they passed away. Although admiring a cemetery may be a little morbid, the pagodas are impressive and some are quite old, with the entire 'forest' spanning a number of Chinese dynasties. The area also isn't too large so you can relax a little and see it in between some of the more trying attractions. If you turn right after the temple but before you reach the pagoda forest you can ascend one of the mountains to Wuru Peak. On the way up you may encounter martial artists who are running up to said peak. I appreciated this more after I reached the top and realized how difficult running up must be. The first thing you come across on your way up is the Chuzu Convent, which requires you to peel off and take a side path. Make sure when that path splits you go left, since right takes you to a wall and you can't get in. The convent is far more peaceful than the temple, since it's much smaller and a little off the beaten path but that also means it's less important as a tourist site. Because of this the convent was far more run down than the temple. We only saw one nun while there and although it was incredible to see, you could tell that it gets neglected.

Returning to the main path up, you find lots of stairs and a far off statue of the Buddha. Make sure to turn around sometimes, as the view of the area spread out before you get's more impressive the farther up you get. When you've almost neared the top you encounter the Dharma Cave, where Bodhidarma is said to have meditated, staring at a wall, for 9 years. not much farther up, above the cave is the statue that you can see from the bottom. The view from the top is stunning and should not be missed.

Beyond the Temple

This is just a tiny portion of what you can see in and around Mount Song, and I'd love to go back sometime to take in more. The map shows the whole area. I only saw the things in the top half of the brown area on the left (the Shaolin Area). Half of one area. In addition there are two more areas (the Songyang and Zhongyue scenic areas) that probably stand on their own (and have their own entrance fees). The map doesn't give a good sense of size, and I don't know if it's to scale, but this area is HUGE. I was there for 1 night and saw half of the Shaolin area. I think I would probably need at least another day, maybe two to see the rest of the Shaolin area, and that's to say nothing of the other two areas, which depending on difficulty could take quite a long time. In addition it likely requires a lot of walking, both distance and elevation, so you should make sure you're ready before going. All in all the area is decent sized and, if you really want to see everything, requires a equally sized time commitment.

Final Notes

The tiny village above the temple doesn't afford the opportunity to see any of the nearby city of Dengfeng and is probably a poor choice for a base from which to explore the two scenic areas, but it's a great place to stay to see the Shaolin area.
The ticket I bought at the entrance let me get into all of the areas I went to, including the main temple. I've read though that the ticket will only get you into the temple the day you buy it, so make sure to go there first.
If you're planning to stay in the Shaolin area, and not in Dengfeng, and then go directly somewhere else make sure that you check the bus schedule BEFORE you go in. I had trouble getting good information from people about the bus schedule once I was inside the Shaolin area and ended up missing the last bus to Luoyang.

Shaolin has been ticked off my pilgrimage list and I was surprised to find that what I enjoyed the most wasn't actually the martial arts, but the area itself, which is stuffed full of things to see as long as you're willing to look for them. See the temple of course, but be sure to make some time to see everything else since that's where the real secret of Mount Song is. Thanks for reading and I'll see you on my next trip.

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