Shaolin Kung fu

By Bruce Firestone | Uncategorized

Jan 23

Here’s an interesting story of how to (possibly) animate a small town (Shoalhaven Heads New South Wales, population 2,910, about 55 minutes south of Wollongong) by adding a Shaolin Temple and Kung fu academy.

The original temple (located on Dengfeng Avenue in Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, Henan about 11 and ½ hours by car northwest of Hangzhou) houses an ancient Buddhist monastery currently led by controversial abbot Shi Yongxin; it is also the birthplace of kung fu.   

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Abbott

Yongxin

is the One not Wearing a Suit

They’d negotiated for land in Shoalhaven Australia for about 10 years. When the deal was ready to complete, Yongxin personally delivered the check for $3 million USD (about $3.8 million AUD).

Their plan?

Build a temple, a live-in Kung fu
academy, a 500-bed four-star hotel and a 27-hole golf course plus 300 residential lots.

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Shoalhaven is a local destination for surfing as well as gaining access to the Shoalhaven river, Jervis Bay and surrounding wineries.

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However, scandal involving the abbot (accused of sleeping with women despite his vow of celibacy) and the convoluted (and lengthy) planning process in NSW may yet derail their plan. The residential component had already been rejected by Shoalhaven city council and its planning assessment commission.

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Abbot Accuser

Who knows if the project will ever get off the ground, but if it does it is a $270 million USD project even without its housing component. It will attract tourists and Kung fu practitioners from all over Australia and beyond.

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Underwear She Wore During her (alleged) Encounter with Abbot 

If scandal does not derail it, NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard) activism might. This is a plague constraining economic development everywhere the British planning system has taken hold, which is pretty much everywhere today.

Here are some of the community’s comments at the August 2014 Norwa Planning Assessment
Commission meeting attended by 90 opponents:

-1 speaker spent his allocated 5 minutes standing in silence 

-some said there was a lack
of consultation with the community

-others said it’s too big, in the
wrong place and has the capacity to clog up Jervis Bay

The project had been under negotiation for eight years as of the date of that meeting.

This is the crux of the issue: is their political will to proceed with projects like this despite negative media attention and local opposition?

@ profbruce @ quantum_entity

Sources and further reading:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-14/shaolin-pac-meeting/5670166

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3189479/Woman-posts-pictures-underwear-wore-bed-scandal-hit-celibate-head-monk-Zen-Buddhist-kung-fu-Shaolin-Temple.html

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/shaolin-temple-plans-to-build-380-million-complex-in-shoalhaven-nsw/news-story/b45f522278d3fce0193fc4144d53f3ce

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-12-28/the-rise-and-fall-of-shaolin-s-ceo-monk

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About the Author

Bruce is an entrepreneur/real estate broker/developer/coach/urban guru/keynote speaker/Sens founder/novelist/columnist/peerless husband/dad.

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