登封·嵩山
Dengfeng: Shaolin and the Songshan monuments
Eight UNESCO-listed sites scattered around one mountain, ninety minutes south-west. Shaolin is only the loudest of them.
Opening hours
Getting there
Address available on the linked map.
Practical notes
Reservation needed Shaolin needs a real-name ticket booked online; one ticket covers the temple, Pagoda Forest and Sanhuang Zhai. Shuttles and the cable car are extra. Buses leave from the long-distance station opposite Zhengzhou railway station about every half hour. At Shaolin skip the kung fu show, walk to the Pagoda Forest of monks' tombs, and if the legs hold, the cliff path to Sanhuang Zhai. The quieter ones are nearby: the Songyue Pagoda of 523, the oldest brick pagoda in China; the Zhongyue Temple; and Guo Shoujing's 1276 observatory at Gaocheng, which measured the year to within 26 seconds.