I live and work in
China, and as a good
Buddhist of the Zen persuasion, I went to Shaolin to see the place where
Bodhidharma sat facing the wall for nine years. The town is full of kung fu schools cashing in on the name as a kind of military boarding school for kids. The temple truly is a tourist trap now, with streets full of tat and a giant plastic
Maitreya for kids to play in. But in the
pagoda forest out back are the tombs of many monks and masters of a thousand years or more. It was peaceful and overgrown, the sun slanted down just so, and I felt an access to beauty.
Another time in the mountains of Yunnan I visited a tumbledown temple in a Bai area not far from Dali. Found a monk who'd studied at Shaolin, living alone, meditating, practicing his arts, and slowly repairing the temple with help from local villagers. He seemed like the real thing to me - and served good tea.