Another long but nice day.  Today we received several important pieces of PH's paperwork... still waiting for one more thing that we hope comes in tomorrow morning or early afternoon.  Then we went to the birthplace of Kung Fu, the Shaolin Temple, established around 479 AD.  

It was a beautiful day, warm, but not stifling.  Little breeze blowing in the temple grounds.  Along the way, we passed many Kung Fu schools, with large group of students dressed alike and practicing various kung fu moves, back flips, etc. across large concrete practice fields.  

In the actual temple, we saw a live show, visited the actual temple itself, and visited an ancient burial ground for high ranking monks from all over the world.  PH received a blessing from the monks and a jade necklace in the shape of his zodiac sign.  In one part of the temple were gold Buddha statues (huge) depicting the past, present, and future Buddha as well as some of his disciplines.  PH

has difficulty walking long distances (or even medium distances), but we were able to borrow a wheelchair to help him get around.  We will have to do this for other future outings and may need to have some kind of moving chair that we can take to locations ourselves.

PH has been to Shaolin temple before and he enjoyed being our tour guide.  The trees are ancient and have holes in the trunks from monks practicing kung fu finger strength through the years.  Lots of people wanted to take photos with L. and JE.  We'll include a sampling here.