On May 17, 2024, a group led by Consul General Dominic McAllister of the Consulate General in Wuhan visited Shaolin Temple, receiving a warm welcome from Shaolin monks.

Recently, the group led by Mr. Dominic McAllister visited Henan province aiming to promote friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in the art and culture fields between our province and Britain. In Shaolin Temple, Mr. Dominic McAllister, with a genuine interest, visited Shaolin Temple’ s architecture and inscriptions, knew about its history and cultural inheritance in detail and watched the national intangible cultural heritage-- Shaolin Kungfu performance.

In the Abbot Hall, abbot Shi Yongxin shared the history of cultural exchanges between Shaolin Temple and Britain, and praised Britain’ s long history and profound cultural deposits. The stage show named “Shaolin Wheel of Life” Shaolin Kungfu monks had taken part in had been performed many times in Britain’ s Royal Opera House, winning a good fame. Shaolin Kungfu and Chan cultivation are always deeply affected foreign friends. Shaolin Temple also set the Shaolin cultural center in London, welcoming Mr. Dominic McAllister to Shaolin Temple again for experience.

Mr. Dominic McAllister highly praised Henna province’ s extensive and profound historical culture. In recent years, Britain and Henan province have further communication while martial arts exchanges between Shaolin Temple and Britain play an important role in it, which is taken as a bridge to expand communication and cooperation between China and Britain. Religious environment in China has an advantage in stability and different religious faiths could live in harmony with each other and develop together, which can’ t be separated from China government’ s normal management for Buddhist circles.