Anyone interested in China's antique weaponry will find Xiamen's Hu Li Shan Fortress worth the visit.

After a few more excursions here and there, I decided to stop in at Nanputuo Temple, built more than one thousand years ago.

Its huge with an enclave of several hundred monks living on the grounds.  And yes they do practice martial arts!

Read on to find out more.

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Some days later, I travelled down to Xiamen, a lovely coastal city (pop. 1.25 million).  Hong Kong is just a short boat ride away!

The Portugese, British, Dutch, and French, all tried to establish trade ports here and their architectural influence can still be seen in the shaded backstreets, quaint parks and colonial villas.

The slogan "resist the Qing, restore the Ming" likely came from Xiamen battle cries.  Many Ming dynasty rulers fled to Xiamen and nearby Jinmen.

Hulishan Fortress (L) houses what once was the world's largest cannon (not shown).  The fortress was built in 1890 to deter foreignors from entering Xiamen. 

The rock walls of the fortress also house one of China's largest antique gun and sword museums.  Shown below are a few of the hundreds of antique weapons on display.

Lighting inside these stone chambers was not conducive to making pics!

In the picture right, I'm chatting with some Quanzhou old timers about Fujian boxing styles.  The oldest among them was about 88.  They stated that Crane today was hard to find.  And that it was divided into the old and new versions which split about 80 years past.  The old version contains the 108 set.

Accordingly, they stated that Wing Chun was most popular in Quanzhou and could be found most anywhere during morning exercises in the Parks.

Page 2  --  A Merry Fukien Xmas!