Shaolin Firefighters

[GeneChing]

Just when you think you've seen it all...

Holy Monk Kung Fu Firefighters

It would seem that Shaolin monks wear many holy hats in their quest for physical, psychological and spiritual harmony.



Shaolin monks are renowned throughout the world for their kung fu skills. They have also been highly regarded in popular culture via television and other media, which have helped to keep their age-old traditions alive and very much kicking.

Recently, they have been put to a new sort of test, involving challenges with other Buddhist sects from Hangzhou and Zhejiang provinces in eastern China for the role of best firefighters.

Garbed in their traditional orange robes, which ironically match the color of the flames they are in haste to extinguish, the monks were very serious about achieving the honor of being the fastest at putting out the blaze.

These tests of speed were meant as an unveiled challenge to the slow, unreliable governmental response to fires. The monks are determined to protect the sacred Buddhist temples lit by thousands of candles.

“By the time they get there, it would be too late, so we have to take the Buddha’s will into our own hands,” said one firefighter.

Since their regimen demands that they keep physically fit, and these holy warriors perform brutal daily training to develop strength and resilience, they easily conquer the fires.

[Songshan]

blah...firefighters get all the credit. I'd rather see Holy Monk Kung Fu Police Officers....err wait wasn't that covered in a previous issue?

[GeneChing]

Thread necromancy makes me so happy, especially when that thread is obscure.

Firefighter's kung fu goes viral
02019-12-11 09:25:58 Global Times Editor : Li YanECNS App Download


A firefighter practices Shaolin kung fu with a broom in a fire station in Northwest China's Gansu Province. (Photo/Screenshot from video by Pear Video)

A firefighter who thought he was alone in the yard of his fire station doing his regular exercises, could never have imaged he actually had an audience of 4.6 million, after a surreptitiously-shot video of his routine went viral on social media.

Wen Guoxiang, a firefighter at Longnan Branch of Forest Fire Corps in Northwest China's Gansu Province, is a kung fu master, who on most mornings does an extremely vigorous and expert series of kung fu lunges, spinning kicks and leaps.

"It's been a habit of mine for years. The broom felt similar to the staff I used to practice with so I just used it," said Wen, adding that he didn't notice another firefighter shooting the video from a nearby balcony.

Wen said he has been practicing kung fu since he was nine years old and had owned a martial arts club before becoming a firefighter.

The routine he was caught doing with his broom is often performed by China's famed Shaolin Temple, which often tours the world.

Wen was lauded online as a low-key kung fu broom master in a firefighter's uniform.

"Is he the sweeping kung fu monk" of firefighters? a netizens jokingly asked.