Dear friends, as we all know, Shaolin temple is quite famous all over the world. Today, I’m very glad to accompany you to visit this old temple.

  

     Shaolin Temple lies at the foot of Songshan Mountain. It is about 80 kilometres to the Southwest of Zhengzhou City. In the year of 495 A.D, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Song Dynasty had it built for an Indian monk to spread Buddhism in China. In the year of 527 A.D, Buddhi-Dharma came to this area and founded Zen Sect of Buddhism. Since then, Shaolin Temple became influential. Especially in Tang Dynasty, Shaolin Temple was entitled ‘the NO.1 Temple in China’ by Emperor Taizong, because he was once rescued by 13 martial monks from Shaolin Temple.

  

     Today, this old temple is quite famous for 2 reasons. First, it is the origin of Zen Sect Buddhism. Zen Sect is an important branch of Buddhism, which has many disciples in Asia. It combined the thoughts of Confucianism and other Chinese local religions. Second, Shaolin Temple is the cradle of Chinese martial arts, which is called kung Fu or ‘wu shu’ in Chinese. China is the hometown of Kung Fu, while Shaolin Temple is the cradle of Chinese Kung Fu.

  

     The area of Shaolin Temple is about 30,000 square meters. There are 7 high buildings on the central line. Upon the gate of Shaolin Temple, we can see 3 Chinese characters. That is the Chinese name of this temple. The name was written by the most popular Emperor of Qing Dynasty---

Kangxi. The grand hall is the centre of the whole yard. It is the place where Buddhist Monks have their daily lessons and hold big ceremonies. The last hall in the yard would be very interesting, because people can find 48 deep depressions on the floor of this hall. These depressions were made by groups of martial monks when they practised Kung Fu in this hall. From this scene we can tell it is very hard to become a Kong Fu master.

  

     About 400 meters to the west of Shaolin Temple, there is a big group of pagodas called ‘Pagoda Forest’. Under these pagodas of different types are tombs of famous monks from Shaolin Temple. Altogether, there are more than 240 pagodas in this yard and it is the largest pagoda group now existing in China.

  

     Of course, there are still many other attractive spots in Shaolin Scenic area. Now, let’s come near to this mysterious temple and enjoy all the precious heritage that our ancestors left to us. Thank you!