Tells the story of the author's ascension to 10th-degree Shaolin kempo black belt and his appointment as an honorary ambassador to China's legendary Shaolin Temple. Accompanying rare techniques of more than 350 photos, this book is of interest to various Shaolin enthusiasts.

Journey to Shaolin Temple is one man's lucid account of his once-in-a-lifetime trek through China's Henan province. Readers join Williams as he begins his tour in Zhengzhou and moves onto Luoyang and Dengfeng, home of the legendary Shaolin Temple and mystical Mount Song. This captivating tale provides vivid descriptions and dynamic photographs includes the Longmen Grottoes, White Horse Temple and Guan Lin Temple. Text discussions include the Silk Road, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and the Four Kings of Heaven. Williams also shares his experiences traveling via China's vast transportation systems. Williams opens a window that illuminates the complex layers of Chinese society and civilization and inter-societal issues such as the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese languages. Today's world is becoming smaller and its cultures more interdependent. Williams' timely story illustrates that different cultures and nationalities can and do learn from each other.

Bill Bryson meets Bruce Lee in this raucously funny story of one scrawny American’s quest to become a kung fu master at China’s legendary Shaolin Temple. Growing up a ninety-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970s TV series, Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to spend two years training with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism. Expecting to find an isolated citadel populated by supernatural ascetics that he’d seen in countless badly dubbed chop-socky flicks, Matthew instead discovered a tacky tourist trap run by Communist party hacks. But the dedicated monks still trained in the rigorous age-old fighting forms—some even practicing the “iron kung fu” discipline, in which intensive training can make various body parts virtually indestructible (even the crotch). As Matthew grew in his knowledge of China and kung fu skill, he would come to represent the Temple in challenge matches and international competitions, and ultimately the monks would accept their new American initiate as close to one of their own as any Westerner had ever become. Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, American Shaolin is an unforgettable coming-of-age tale of one young man’s journey into the ancient art of kung fu—and a funny and poignant portrait of a rapidly changing China.

Carradine shares the knowledge he has obtained through his years of practicin kung fu, and offers advice on healing, nutrition, stance training, stretchin class, self-defense, meditation, and philosophy.

This meticulously researched and eminently readable study considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.