Kung fu - the popular term for Chinese martial arts - spread worldwide through Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies. It is not just kicks and punches but a cultural system blending Daoist yin-yang, Buddhist meditation and Confucian etiquette.
Two great schools: Shaolin (Dengfeng, Henan; hard, external styles - all kung fu under heaven comes from Shaolin) and Wudang (Shiyan, Hubei; internal styles that overcome force with softness - tai chi is its ambassador).
The spirit: discipline before skill, respect for teachers and peers, train the three nines of winter and the three volts of summer for perseverance; tai chi intention, not force is philosophy as much as exercise.
Trying it: martial-arts schools and experience camps abound (concentrated around Shaolin Temple); visitors can join classes from one day to months. And every morning in city parks, free tai chi sessions run - just follow along.
Today martial arts have entered the Olympic orbit (wushu debuts as a full sport at the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympics), with over 100 million practitioners worldwide.
