What to do in your free time at the Shaolin temple

Once you made it through the first week of training, other activities of this unique area get more and more attractive. The numerous temples and sacred sites of the Shaolin Scenic Area attract thousands of visitors every day – not without reason. Apart from the stunning views within the temple complex, the nearby town Dengfeng is also worth a visit, especially for exhausted Kung Fu disciples…

Dengfeng

Since the popularization of Shaolin Kung Fu in the 90ies, Dengfeng has developed into a hotspot for Kung Fu tourists – you can find anything your heart desires in this small Chinese city. There are numerous shops offering training clothes, shoes and weapons, which saved my unequipped ass, as I desperately needed more clothes for training. Another lifesaver are the massage places. When your whole body aches after the first couple of days of training, they do an incredible job of getting you back on your feet and ready for more training – all at a very reasonable price.

But Dengfeng also offers a chance to relax, you can get western food (which I haven’t tried yet, as I have become rather suspicious of what is referred to as pizza here in Asia) and, more importantly, sing Karaoke. The later has become somewhat of a tradition for Saturday nights, as there is no training on Sundays, and everyone feels like having a little party after training hard all week. We were lucky enough to have Chinese friends, who booked the room for us for a highly discounted price. Singing a mixture of English and Chinese songs is lots of fun, while trying to follow along the Chinese lyrics makes a great reading comprehension for little beginners like me.

The temple grounds – Shaolin scenic area

If I had to describe the area around the temple with one word, I’d go with stairs. Everywhere you go, you will find lots of them and usually, there are no other options available. However, the views are so amazing that it is always worth it. The area is huge and offers lots of things to explore, so I am sure, that I didn’t visit everything. Nonetheless, here are some of the things we explored:

Wu Long Tan

Pretty early on I learned about this mysterious place in the woods, where you could go swimming if it had rained enough during the days before. On our first try to get there, we missed a turn and ended up on a walk with lots of ancient inscriptions on stones next to it. While it was beautiful and quite interesting to see to this day, I have no clue, why it was there and looked so deserted. Either way, we ended up going to the Pagoda Forest on that day instead (see below).

The next day however, our Shifu told us that he knew where the waterfall is and that he could takes us there during the afternoon class. We were not allowed to go swimming though, as there have been accidents before, including people dying in the currents or due to shock in the cold water. Still, we were all enthusiastic about going. Since two of our group new the way as well, Shifu decided to leave us alone on the way there, he had different things to attend to. So, we set out for the waterfall as a group of 13 Shaolin disciples. However, one of the less bright members of the group, decided to walk in front, with earphones in. And no, he did not know, where we were going. Naturally, he took the wrong turn and even though someone tried to find him no more than 5 minutes later, he was long gone. Shifu, who seems to have a sixth sense about these kinds of things, called to check up on us, and as no one would ever lie to him, we told him about losing one guy. He was… not amused. After sending out another search team, the lost guy was found chilling in a temple on top of the mountain we were at, completely unfazed by the tumult he had caused. We were all cited to the office though and reprimanded for mistake.

Despite the rather eventful discovery of the place, it is a stunning location and amazing to chill and cool down for a bit. Whether or not you want to swim there, is up for your own judgment, just be aware that Shifu always knows…

Erzu temple

Lost guy was found here… and we accidentally went there the next weekend, looking for a completely different temple, so something is definitely up with this place. On top of a mountain, this is one of the more accessible temples, as there is a cable car going up there. The view is stunning and the temple itself also quite pretty. One monk proudly showed us a picture of him with President Putin, who had apparently visited this temple before.

After visiting the temple, it is possible to walk further up the mountain to an amazing viewpoint. From there, you could go even further, up to the top of the mountain, but we refrained from doing so for time reasons. It is supposed to be a beautiful and relatively secluded hiking spot though, so definitely worth a visit.

Song Shan Huang Zhai jing Qu

This is where we actually wanted to go. There is another cable car a bit farther back in the valley, which leads to the endless walkway along the mountain cliffs to this temple, we named Kung Fu Panda temple. It took us over 2hrs, and lots of stairs, to get there after leaving the cable car, so don’t underestimate how far it is. The view on the mountains and forests around is unbelievable though. Once you get there, you can in fact not enter the temple, but by walking around, you will catch a glimpse of what it looks like inside as well. It has been restored by a small group of monks, who had to carry all the material up the mountain themselves, as it is so secluded that no roads lead there. From the temple it is possible to go down on the other side of the mountain, so don’t make the same mistake we did and make sure to buy a one-way ticket for the cable car, instead of a returning one. At the foot of the mountain, we discovered, that we are technically outside of the temple grounds and had to pay for the green sightseeing bus to take us out of the touristic area to a random parking lot, from which we had to get a taxi to go home. It was quite an adventure, but I’d definitely recommend going through the troubles, the views are worth it!

Pagoda forest

This ancient wonder is a lot closer to the main temple and thus more accessible to everyone. It is also closed to the public, so you can walk by it and take pictures, but not in it. Unless you know someone who knows someone of course. And so it came that we had a chance to stroll through the pagodas and take nice pictures among this ancient background. One of the more surprising things for me was the newer section of the forest though, where the efforts of the current abbot to revive Shaolin in modern times are depicted. You can see him introducing cars and electricity to the temple and on a nearby stone the names of the first foreign students are inscribed, a reminder that only 20 years back, my stay here wouldn’t have been possible and that the temple has evolved and changed a lot during the last couple of years.

Damodong

The cave where it all began. Damo is the Chinese name of Bodhidharma, who is the founder of Chan Buddhism and brought the first forms and practices of Kung Fu to the temple. In this cave, he is said to have meditated for 9 years before reaching enlightenment and teaching his first student Huike. Sitting almost at the top of the mountain, you need to walk up over 1000 steps before reaching the cave, and even more, if you want to visit the gigantic statue at the peak. The steep staircase is regularly used by students and disciples to train their endurance and speed, monks are supposed to make it from the temple to the cave and back again in under 25min! For a more comfortable pace and some time to take pictures as well, I’d recommend taking about 1h 30min to visit this place, the long stairs are absolutely worth it, once you get a glimpse of the view and the cave simply is a must-visit for every Kung Fu enthusiast! A final word of warning – be careful on the way down and when it is rainy, the stairs are incredibly slippery.

Honourable mentions

There is a place that were recommended to me, but I did not visit: Yong Tai temple, where the Shaolin nuns live and practice.

Luoyang and the Longman caves

Just before leaving China, I paid a visit to the Longman caves with some friends. They are situated right next to Luoyang, roughly a 1h 30min drive from Dengfeng. These caves are carved into the hills next to a river, showing depictions of Buddha and various guardians. We went on a Sunday afternoon, and it was packed with people. As it got later, the crowd started to disperse though, so it was possible to walk a bit more comfortably. Make sure to take enough time and bring some water and snacks, as the area is rather big and you can easily spend 3-4hrs exploring it!

Would you like to spend some time exploring the area around Shaolin? Have you been and can give some more recommendations? Let us know in the comments below!

xxx