The Shaolin Children’s home holds a special place in our hearts at The Dragon Trip. With a bit of a gap until our next China backpacking tour and Shaolin visit (March 2016), The Dragon Trip team sent gifts to say thank you for the joy they bring to our travellers.

The Shaolin kids mesmerise Dragon Trippers on our China tours with their super-human Kung Fu moves. Then they put our travellers through their paces with a private Kung Fu lesson. It’s so often mentioned as a China backpacking tour highlight. The children are a joy to learn from and be around – always full of warmth and laughter. The visit normally ends with a game of football or dodgeball, a few more photos and then we say our goodbyes until next time.

It could have turned out very differently for these young Kung Fu apprentices. They are at the Children’s Home because their families could not afford to raise them or because they were abandoned. They mostly come from local areas that are remote and poor. Without some form of education, prospects for getting ahead and making a better life are very dim.

The Shaolin Children’s home uses Kung Fu as a way to create a future for these kids. Those that excel at Kung Fu go on to become Kung Fu teachers. Of course, that isn’t for everybody so regular schooling is absolutely essential as well. Dragon Trippers pay 150RMB to visit – and every bit goes back into the home to look after and educate the children.

With our last China adventure tour of 2015 finished in November and our next one not due until March 2016, we thought we’d fill the gap with some Christmas cheer. We bought the 23 kids notebooks and English books for their studies, gloves, Dragon Trip t-shirts and some special snacks all the way from Shanghai. We also bought pollution masks to help them through bouts of winter smog (despite the beautiful surroundings and a UNESCO world heritage site, there are also a lot of factories in the area). Our Shanghai office cranked up the music and turned into a gift wrapping production line. The message in our cards to the kids was simple: keep training hard and bringing joy to everyone you come across.

Thank you Shaolin Children’s Home. We can’t wait to see you in March!

To visit Shaolin Children’s Home and the Shaolin Temple, why not join us on a tour this year? Check out our action-packed China trip itineraries and get in touch.

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