The short answer: there is one original, historically documented Shaolin Temple — the one on Mount Song in Henan that every tour visits — and a second "Southern Shaolin" tradition in Fujian province whose true location is still debated, with three different cities each claiming and rebuilding it. Older traditions mention as many as ten Shaolin temples, but those are largely legendary. Here is what actually stands. To visit the real one, see the Shaolin Temple tours.
The Original: Songshan Shaolin in Henan
The Shaolin Temple almost everyone means is the northern, original monastery at the foot of Mount Song near Dengfeng, in Henan Province. Founded in 495 CE, it is the birthplace of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and of Shaolin kung fu, and it holds the famous Pagoda Forest. This is the UNESCO-listed site, and the one all the tours on this website visit. Its full story is on the history page.
The Southern Shaolin Mystery
Beyond the original, tradition speaks of a "Southern Shaolin" — a monastery in Fujian province said to have sheltered monks in times of crisis and to be the cradle of southern Chinese martial arts. The problem is that no one can agree where it was. Three Fujian cities each claim to be the true site, and each has excavated ruins and rebuilt a temple to press the case:
| Claimed site | City | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Putian | Fujian coast | Predecessor "Linquan Temple"; stone troughs inscribed "monk soldier" found in the 1980s |
| Quanzhou | Fujian coast | Long-claimed site; less archaeological confirmation, redeveloped over the centuries |
| Fuqing | Fujian coast | The most rural, with the largest surviving collection of artefacts; rebuilt in the 1990s |
Were There Really Ten?
Some martial-arts traditions go further, describing a network of up to nine or ten Shaolin temples scattered along China's south-eastern coast, said to have supported army garrisons against pirates in the Ming era. A few sources also name temples at other mountains. These accounts are colourful and culturally important, but they are mostly the stuff of legend and lineage stories rather than firm history. What is certain is that only the Henan monastery has an unbroken, documented history stretching back more than 1,500 years. The Putian temple, for instance, is also known by the evocative name Nine-Lotus Mountain, after the ring of peaks around it; other tales attach the Shaolin name to temples at mountains such as Emei in Sichuan or sites in Guangdong. Trying to pin down a fixed number quickly turns into untangling centuries of legend, lineage pride and local memory — which is exactly why the honest answer is "one for certain, and a great deal of story around it."
The Original's Unbroken Story
What sets the Henan monastery apart is a continuous, documented history the Fujian sites cannot match. It was founded in 495 CE by order of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei for the monk Batuo; a generation later the Indian monk Bodhidharma is said to have settled nearby and founded Chan Buddhism. In the Tang dynasty, thirteen Shaolin monks famously came to the aid of the future emperor Li Shimin, cementing the temple's martial reputation. It survived war, decline and a devastating fire in 1928, and in 2010 its historic monuments were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. That thread — unbroken across more than 1,500 years — is why it, and not any southern claimant, is "the" Shaolin Temple.
Northern and Southern Style
The north–south split is not only about buildings; it echoes in the martial arts themselves. Northern Shaolin styles are known for long, extended movements, high kicks and acrobatic footwork suited to open ground, while the southern traditions associated with Fujian favour compact, powerful hand techniques and low, rooted stances. Whether or not every legend holds, the two flavours of Chinese kung fu are real, and the debate over temples is bound up with the story of how those styles spread.
Why Three Cities Claim It
The confusion is not random. The Southern Shaolin looms large in the origin stories of southern Chinese martial arts and of anti-Qing secret societies, whose legends describe a southern monastery of fighting monks burned down by the Qing army — a tale powerful enough that several communities have long held it as local memory. When cultural-heritage research and tourism took off, each city with a plausible claim had strong reason to press it.
The evidence is genuinely mixed. At Putian, a site rediscovered during a 1980s relics census yielded Song-era stone troughs inscribed with the term "monk soldier" — a designation historically associated with Shaolin — on a complex covering some 30,000 square metres. Fuqing, the most rural of the three, has the largest surviving collection of artefacts and visible ruins, with pottery shards reportedly marked with the characters for Shaolin, and its temple was rebuilt in the 1990s. Quanzhou's claim is the most contested: the old temple ground was redeveloped long ago, and archaeology has not firmly confirmed a monastery named Shaolin there. Historians still weigh these threads without a settled verdict.
Which One Should You Visit?
For a traveller, the answer is simple: the original Songshan Shaolin in Henan. It is the one with the great halls, the Pagoda Forest, the daily kung fu show and the deepest history — and it is the most accessible, an easy day trip from Zhengzhou or Luoyang. The Fujian temples are of real interest to martial-arts pilgrims and history buffs, but they are far away, contested, and largely modern reconstructions.
How to See the Real One
Reaching the original could hardly be easier. The Henan monastery sits about 1.5 hours by road from both Zhengzhou and Luoyang, and day tours run from each, often pairing it with the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang. From further afield, high-speed trains reach Zhengzhou or Luoyang from Xi'an in around 1.5 hours and from Beijing in roughly 2.5, making even a long-distance day trip realistic. The visiting page has the ticket and transport detail; the how-to-visit guide walks through the whole day. Remember, too, that it is the Henan site — not any Fujian claimant — whose historic monuments carry UNESCO World Heritage protection, so a visit there is as close to the "true" Shaolin as travel allows.
So: one original, one contested Southern tradition split three ways, and a scattering of legend. Read what makes the real one so remarkable on the temple and halls guide, or compare visits on the Shaolin Temple tours home page.