Dengfeng / Shaolin
Cradle of Kung Fu
Portrait
Bodhidharma is said to have sat facing a wall in a cave above Shaolin for nine years around 520, founding Chan — Zen in Japanese — and the monks' fighting tradition developed from exercises he reportedly gave them. The Pagoda Forest below holds 240 brick tombs of abbots, and Dengfeng also has the Songyue pagoda of 523, the oldest brick pagoda in China.
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