During our extensive two week travel throughout China I saw many things that made a significant impression on me. If I had to pick the top two places that we visited, it would be the Shao-lin Temple near Zhengzhou and of course China's newest and highly modernized city of Shanghai.
Zhengzhou: Shao-lin Temple
Zhengzhou really stood out to me because it is one of the best ancient cities to get to know Chinese history. The Shao-lin temple was also fascinating because as a visitor it was amazing to see how religion and cultural traditions come together. The Chinese are becoming highly modernized but their deep rooted cultural traditions and ancient history will always lie close to their heart and be an active part of their lives.
May 23rd was our first day in the large city of Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou is located in the Henan Province, which is the largest province of China. The province contains over one hundred million people. I learned that there are 33-34 provinces in China and overall China has an enormous population of 1.3 billion people. The largest industry in Hunan is Agriculture such as wheat production. The province has history that dates back to over 5,000 years ago. At the center of the Henan province is the Yellow River. The river is the mother river of China. Our local tour guide, Jack told us that Henan is the best place to get to know ancient Chinese history because it is the oldest province in China. It was interesting that the citizens of Henan believe they are descendents of the dragon, a mythical creature that the Chinese greatly admire. Our first sight to see in Zhengzhou was the Shao-lin Temple. The Shao-lin Temple is said to be the monastery of all the world and is the origin of all martial arts. The warrior monks of the Shao-lin temple are synonymous with Chinese gongfu. Buddhism and martial arts are the elements that nourish and occupy the Shao-lin monk on an everyday basis. The martial arts performed here has become a popular subject in many films and becomes the fantasy of young school boys to become martial art masters. Unlike, other martial arts, Shao-lin Martial arts foster a great religious sense and a spiritual way of life. The monks of Shao-lin in ancient times were also sometimes called upon to fight for the court, which then evolved into the creation of a standing army of monk-soldiers. The monks used an ancient fighting technique called finger point, where they were able to put a hole in the highest and thickest of tress with a single finger. The main temple contains three Buddha’s; past, present, and future. Many of the monks live on the Shao-lin grounds and they are not allowed to marry, eat meat, and chose to live a very simple life. They also believe that the lotus is a holy flower, therefore it is often used as their symbol. We also got the opportunity to see the monks in their procession to a religious ceremony at the temple. The temple also contained many gongfu schools for young boys to learn the ancient art, we saw many talented boys practice their routines and daily exercises. After getting the chance to observe what a typical day at the temple was like, we went to see a kung-fu show. It was amazing to see the young men and boys perform such physically demanding exercises. They had mastered the use of swords and ancient gongfu fighting moves. Overall, I found the Shao-lin Temple to be extremely spiritually and physically intriguing. There is definitely no place in America where once can experience such an immense sense of spirituality and observe the complete immersion to master the skillful art of martial arts.
-Christina Benitez
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