Shaolin Temple

May 5, 2011

Our hostel in Luoyang was within walking distance from the train station, so we set off to find it on foot. There were many people hawking Shaolin Temple tours as we left the busy transit station. Although that is where we planned to go that day, we needed to get to the hostel first to put our bags down and get some breakfast. (Plus, I have a natural aversion to buying anything that someone is really trying to sell me. This is something you have to work to get over in China.) As we walked along, we definitely noticed that we garnered more attention as foreigners than we had in Beijing: more staring, kids saying “Hello!” and then giggling, and of course, as the day went on, more pictures taken of us because we were American. Luoyang is a smaller and more out-of-the-way place than Beijing but it is still a big city; it was actually suggested to us that we should get more cash while in Beijing, just in case Luoyang didn’t have ATMs! For a city with an urban population of over 1 million and surrounding population of over 6 million, this just seemed silly, but we took the advice and got out more cash, just in case. For future reference, Luoyang does have ATMs.

After settling in at our hostel and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed back to the transit station to get a bus to the Shaolin Temple. There were actually two bus stations, basically on opposite sides of the train station from each other, and it wasn’t entirely clear which station we should go to. Our guide books were helpful but didn’t entirely answer the question. One station seemed to be more for local buses and one was for long distance buses… or something like that. We were also encountering more language difficulties than we had in Beijing. In Beijing, lots of young people spoke English and it was pretty easy to find someone who could at least understand enough of your problem to point you in the right direction. We were doing our best to learn some Mandarin, but this was early in our trip and we were not yet experts with our knowledge, our pronunciation, or even where to flip to in our phrase books.

Clock tower outside the Luoyang train station

So we did some wandering around the transit station, looking at our guide books, discussing things, pointing, thinking, and asking for help without much success. All of the Shaolin Temple hawkers of a couple of hours ago were gone. This didn’t go on too long and we were no where near the point of giving up but it was definitely a little frustrating. And then we met XQ! This nice young guy had picked us out of the crowd as people who clearly needed help. XQ had a longer name but quickly offered up this shorter version, which was definitely easier for us to say, but it also appeared he might have preferred the shorter version himself. He was a college student and one of the many incredibly nice Chinese people who went out of their way (usually literally) to help us get where we needed to go. In short order, XQ found out what we wanted, walked us to the correct bus station, and helped us buy tickets. He did all this when he was already running late to meet his girlfriend – a truly nice guy! We got his phone number in case we needed more help during our brief Luoyang stay.

The bus tickets we bought were to Dengfeng, from where we could get a taxi to the Shaolin Temple. Our bus was leaving right away, so we hopped on for the hour or so ride to Dengfeng.

On the bus to Dengfeng

The Shaolin Temple, a Buddhist monastery, is the original home of Chinese martial arts. An Indian monk developed a series of exercises there c. 527 AD that became the basis for Shaolin Boxing. In addition to the monks, the monastery is now home to a martial arts school. Many martial arts devotees go there to develop their kung fu skills. So it was no surprise that upon our arrival, we witnessed hundreds of students marching out to perform their daily exercises.

Sadly, the temple has burned down repeatedly over the years and the newer buildings just aren’t as charming as the ancient ones. In addition to the necessary reconstruction, there are many intentionally new buildings and statues on site. Sometimes it was difficult to differentiate between things that were preserved, precious relics and the commercialized nonsense built c. 1997. It was still fun and interesting to poke around here and see different stuff, though.

Heavenly guardian, built in 1981

Reconstruction/construction

Judging by the holes in the bench, we weren't the first people to lose a flaming end of an incense stick

The day went on and we wilted in the heat, and we almost decided to not trek a little further up the hill to the Pagoda Forest, a collection of brick pagodas memorializing important monks. But we decided to do it and I am so glad we did! It was quiet, peaceful, and full of ancient things that were actually ancient.

Real live monks

The oldest pagoda, c. 791 AD

Pagoda Forest and mountains view

Our last stop of the day was to see a kung fu performance. It was amazing! The athleticism and skill of the students was truly impressive; they also put on a good show. I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to take pictures or not (it looked like no one else was) so I didn’t take any. It would have been really cool to have gotten a video!

Ash might move here

We left the Temple just in time to catch a tour bus back to Luoyang. This seemed like an easier and cheaper way to get back than to retrace our steps with the taxi and city bus via Dengfeng. It was easy and cheap; however it took twice as long and seemed to take a really odd route. Our driver’s driving could best be described as CRAZY. There were also several times we questioned if we really did get on the right bus! I dealt with my uncertainty by falling asleep. When we arrived back in Luoyang, we were too tired and hungry to make difficult decisions, like where to eat dinner, so we ended up back at the same place we’d had breakfast at earlier that morning. They were very happy to see us back and we were treated like returning royalty. After dinner, we got several bottles of beer at a convenience store to bring back to the hotel: we would have a chill evening in, drinking beer and playing cards. As it turned out, we barely had enough energy to take showers and get in bed. Between the three of us, we didn’t even finish one beer. It was a long day and the night after our overnight train ride in the hard seat carriage, so we cut ourselves some slack. We also needed a good night’s sleep for the next day’s trip to the Longmen Caves!