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Shaolin Monastery, China

2hr Kung Fu Lesson
30min Performance by Shaolin Monks
Visit to Shaolin Temple and Pagoda Forest

Longmen Grottoes

Bullet Train to Xi’an (300kmh)

Before leaving had an interesting conversation with our guide Shirley (who was very professional):
-she does not feel that the Chinese Public miss not being able to access Facebook, as they have never experienced it in the first place
-her views on Chinese State censorship of the media and internet were not clear. However, she did mention that people were keen to be told the truth about events such as the recent bullet train crash, as the ticket prices for these trains are relatively high
-Whilst talking about Chinese Provinces, she referred to the 60 years of the ‘Liberation of Tibet’- when asked from whom she thought Tibet had been ‘liberated’, she said the Tibetan people were liberated from the Landlords (ie Tibetans) who ‘had kept them as slaves’, and so now no Tibetans may not own their own land- but can lease it from the state of China.

This was perhaps the first true insight into how decades total state control can affect the thinking of the population, but it is probably important to bear in mind that Shirley is just 1 out of 1.3 Billion.

Shaolin, China