In recent years some wushu masters have organized various kinds of wushu learning schools around Shaolin Temple, hoping to promote traditional Chinese culture.   Chinanews, Zhengzhou, Oct. 20 – Shaolin Temple in central China's Henan Provincehas become a renowned cultural brand of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. Wushu (martial arts) learning schools are booming in the area where the temple is located. The local government regards these schools as a crucial part of local tourism industry.

 

The film Shaolin Temple is popular in the world in the late 1980s, attracted thousands of wushu fans from home and abroad to learn and practice it in the temple. In recent years some wushu masters have organized various kinds of wushu learning schools there, hoping to promote traditional Chinese culture. Some reporters call the place "the largest wushu village in the world."

 

Currently there are 83 such schools around the temple, and 50 thousand people have been enrolled. Shaolin Hepo Wushu Learning School, the second largest in Zhengzhou, possesses some 6,500 trainees, 1,100 of them being foreigners. They can also choose to receive compulsory education there, making them practice martial arts as well as learn knowledge.

 

These schools earned 500 million yuan (US$63 million) in 2005. They give 8,000 martial arts performances every year, attracting 300 thousand tourists. In the year 2006, the local government has decided to make these schools its key industry and planned to build "a China's capital of martial arts" in the area.