The windowsill is injected with color on a canvas of dull brick. [Photo by James Whitehead/chinadaily.com.cn]

The bus turns right on the motorway ramp and finds itself on an isolated stretch of motorway. Freshly rolled lanes carry little besides white lines dashing in the center of the road. The rapid speed of expansion in Zhengzhou means the populous is constantly catching up. Yet mountains and hills remain either side of the road; cave dwellings glance past the windows. The highway elevates and falls with the terrain, looping and crossing at junctions. The bus climbs higher. Unfinished bridges hang over sleepy lanes, casting shadows on the trickle of vehicles passing under.

We reach the city of Dengfeng, which rests at the foot of Mount Song. A sacred city with legendary tales purifying the air; this is one of China’s most spiritual regions. During the 1st century under the Eastern Han dynasty, streams of Buddhism filtered through into China from remote western corners.

Fusion of martial arts and meditation Henan became fertile ground for the spring of Chinese Buddhism. In the 490s the first Shaolin monasteries were built. After the passing of a century, it is said that Bodhidarma (Damo), an Indian monk, first came to Shaolin. He was worried by the monks’ lack of physical strength, and so set about institutionalizing mental and physical systems of meditation (through the school of Chan, or Zen, which he founded) as well as martial arts. The style of martial arts developed into what we know as kung fu, or wushu. Although Domo was not initially accepted – it is said that his shadow burned into the wall after nine years of meditation – his school of Chan became the symbol of Shaolin Buddhism.

Driving through the city, hundreds of wushu schools line the roads leading to Shaolin Temple. The site of the largest wushu industry, Dengfeng is home to around 100,000 students. The largest school has a capacity of about 10,000 students.