A group of the British Consulate-General Wuhan led by consul general Martin Walley visited Shaolin Temple and received a warm reception from Shaolin monks on Feb. 17, 2022. Deputy director Li Bingbing of the foreign affairs working committee of Henan province, Zhang Shuchen, deputy director of the foreign and overseas Chinese affairs office of Zhengzhou municipal people’ s government and others accompanied the tour.

Accompanied and explained by Shaolin monks, the group led by Mr. Martin Walley visited Shaolin Temple’ s buildings, inscriptions, murals and so on, knew about inheritance and development of Shaolin culture and watched the Shaolin Kungfu performance. He was full of praise for Shaolin Temple’ s historical profundity achievements and repeatedly took photos with his phone.

Abbot Shi Yongxin and Mr. Martin Walley merrily communicated at the Abbot Hall. Mr. Martin Walley asked in detail about Shaolin monks’ living condition, the temple’ s architectural style as well as cultural exchanges between Shaolin Temple and Britain and so on. He also had a deep conversation with abbot Yongxin about differences between European and Shaolin Temple’ s ancient architecture. Abbot Yongxin reviewed the past when he attended the European Shaolin cultural festival and conducted dialogue and communication with religious leaders in Britain. He hoped that Shaolin Temple could enhance cultural exchanges with Britain in future and make Shaolin culture and traditional Chinese culture benefit more the British public.