Beginning this May, monks from the well-known Shaolin Temple will stage regular martial arts performances, four times a day, to entertain visitors.

Local authorities from Dengfeng County, Henan Province, have decided the performances will be staged in an effort to attract more tourists to the temple.

The temple became well-known in the 1980s, when a movie named after the temple was shown worldwide, telling how the Shaolin monks protected their temple with traditional Chinese martial arts during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

All the performers are Shaolin monks who are masters of the martial art and have made performance tours abroad in the past two decades.

(Xinhua 05/10/2001)