Cashing in on Kung Fu

For centuries, Kung Fu fighters have honed their skills at China’s Shaolin Temple, but tourism and commercial training camps now dominate the country’s martial arts landscape.

Many people are now attracted to the original Kung Fu temple for both reasons.

“People started coming in droves in the 1980s, and now about two million people visit us every year,” Shaolin Temple’s Shi Yongxin told Al Jazeera.

The temple has trained fighters for centuries, but it has more recently opened 40 training branches overseas, and plans to create a new Kung Fu franchise model.

Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports from China.