The hushed silence that descends over the old courtyard inside the Shaolin Temple carries the expectation of something magical. Abbot Shi Yongxin, a rotund Buddhist monk with a shaved head and a ...

Shi Yan Ming didn’t intend to make me feel bad. But when a 40-something journalist asks a 59-year-old interviewee to confirm his age, it’s not really appropriate to lift a straight-kneed leg over your ...

This story appears in the March 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine. The master spent his last day of life wrapped in a quilt stitched by his wife, his rasping, irregular breaths filling the ...

Has the iPhone-touting, laptop-savvy MBA grad who runs the ‘Kung Fu’ temple at Shaolin become the latest victim of China’s anti-corruption drive? Speculation over the fate of Shi Yongxin, who has ...

Shi Yan Feng closes his eyes and breathes deeply with ancient form. His palms rise face up on the inhale, then fall slowly, face down, on opposite sides of his torso then stretch straight upwards, ...

Have you ever wanted to learn a martial art? Now is your chance. Under the direction of Shifu Deru, a 31st generation Grandmaster from the Shaolin Temple in China, The Shaolin Institute offers ...

China's Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of kung fu and the star of many martial arts films, has set up an online store to flog its wares. Named "Shaolin The Stage of Joy," a Web page has been set up by ...