『Henan Province』

HeNan

Having a long history, henan is known as a “cradle of the chinese civilization” and “ the birthplace of the culture on central plains”. The province has numerous places of historical interest and scenic beauty, and abounds in cultural relics. luoyang, kaifeng, anyang, nanyang, shangqiu, zhengzhou and junxian are all national famous historical and cultural cities. Major tourist attractions are: longmen grottoes, a world cultural heritage site, dahe village ruins including yangshao, longshan and zhou cultures, yin ruins, white-horse tempel, guanlin, iron pagoda, grand chancellor’s temple, dragon pavilion, shaolin temple and mount songshan scenic resort.northwestern henan is screened by mountains on three sides. Major mountains of the province are Funiu, Taihang, Tongbai and Dabie mountains, as well the central sacred mountains –Songshan mount. Main rivers include the Yellow, Huaihe and Weihe rivers.

Having a long history, henan is known as a “cradle of the chinese civilization” and “ the birthplace of the culture on central plains”. The province has numerous places of historical interest and scenic beauty, and abounds in cultural relics. luoyang, kaifeng, anyang, nanyang, shangqiu, zhengzhou and junxian are all national famous historical and cultural cities. Major tourist attractions are: longmen grottoes, a world cultural heritage site, dahe village ruins including yangshao, longshan and zhou cultures, yin ruins, white-horse tempel, guanlin, iron pagoda, grand chancellor’s temple, dragon pavilion, shaolin temple and mount songshan scenic resort.

4LongMeng Grottoes

Located along the banks on yihe river in luoyang, henan province, the longmen grottoes are important cultural relics under state protection. The carvings started in 493 and lasted more than 400 years to complete. Along the cliffs, there are more than 2,100 niches and 2,800 inscribed stone tablets. Buddhist pagodas and nearly 110,000 buddhist images and statues still exist today.

The grottoes are an outdoor art museum, of stone carvings and have significant value to the study of ancient china’s history and society. the most spectacular grottoes at longmen include guyang grotto, binyang grotto, lianhua grotto, qianxi temple and fengxian temple. the group statues of sambhaga-kayah at fengxian temple are large and exquisitely carved.
The longmen grottoes display the typical imperial style and combne features of numerous sects of buddhism. they have the highest number of inscribed stone tablets among china’s grottoes. In november 200 the longmen grottoes was granted the title of “ the world cultural heritage site” by unesco.

ShaoLin Temple‍‍

Shaolin temple, nestling among the verdant pines and cypresses at the western foot of mount songshan, henan province, is a famous ancient monastery in china. In 495, when bodhidharma, a mahayana buddhist, left sri lanka for china in the 6th century and developed the chan sect (a chinese buddhist school). at that time, emperor xiaowen of the northern wei dynasty (386-534) ordered the construction of a magnificent buddhist temple, named shaolin temple in honor of bodhidharma, a knowledgeable monk who came from india to teach buddhist scriptures to chinese.

In fact the shaolin temple is famous for its chinese kungfu. It is said that bodhidharma was used to do exercises by imitating a tiger, monkey, scorpion and mantis during the intervals in his meditation. Over times the original form of martial arts came into being. Due to the efforts of the original monks and monks in later generations, the art was constantly improved, formalized and refined.
The martial arts of shaolin temple include several hundred varieties, such as chinese boxing, sword, spear, cudgel, qigong (a deep breathing exercise), qinggong(light skill), tongzigong(boy skill), zhuanggong(skill on stakes), mashanggong(skill on horseback), buxiagong(skill on foot) and so on. usually, the martial arts of shaolin are a secret and will not be passed on to outsiders. The practice is also not to be made public. Their genuine skill (kungfu) is accomplished through ten or scores of years of hard practice. Their skill is indeed marvelous; the monks can walk rapidly atop glass; they can walk on precipices like walking on flat ground; they can break a brick with their head, cut a stone with hand, pierce wood with fingers, and resist a lance with throat.

In china, shaolin temple is widely considered to be one of the birthplaces of chinese martial arts. Historical records show that the shaolin temple’s kungfu dates back to some 1,500 years ago.
Thel Shaolin temple, built in 485 to help spread buddhism, consisted of 5,000 halls taking an area of 1,400 square kilometers. Unfortunately, in 1928, the most of it was burned down and the 100 or so halls now still standing were built in the 1980s. despite that shaolin temple still retains its ancient charm and it would be difficult to find a place to mach it in terms of chinese kungfu.

White Horse Temple

One of the most venerable buddhist shrines in china, the White House Temple stands 12 kilometers northeast of luoyang. The resent ming and qing buildings in the temple were built on the site of the original temple, which dated back 2000 years in 68 ad. The temple was the first buddhist temple to be built in china and plays important role in the country’s buddhist history. Legend has it that two buddhist monks from india, riding a white house, delivered the buddhist scriptures to luoyang – hence the name of the temple. covering an area of almost 40,000 square meters, the temple consists of over a hundred halls and rooms.

Martial Arts Tour

A studio east of shaolin temple offers martial arts performances and training courses to groups and individuals from at home and abroad. Chengjian gully in Wenxian county, 60 km north of Zhengzhou, was the cradle of the chen school of taijie boxing; martial arts training classes are held on a regular basis in a studio in the county seat, which is also the site of an annual international Taijie competition in september.

International Shaolin martial arts festival
Time: september 1 –5
Venue: Zhengzhou
Activities: international shaolin martial arts performances and challenging contest; performances of Central chinese traditional culture; hovercraft cruise on the Yellow river