On the afternoon of July 25, 2026, the South Shaolin Temple in Putian welcomed a special group of guests - Taiwanese university basketball players participating in the 2026 Cross Strait University Basketball Tournament. Four Taiwanese teams from Yangming Jiaotong University, Jianxing University of Science and Technology, Yishui University, and Liming University of Science and Technology, together with the Village BA Star Team from Licheng District, entered the South Shaolin Temple at the foot of Jiulian Mountain, embarking on a Zen martial culture experience journey.

At 3:00 pm, the Taiwanese team arrived at the South Shaolin Temple. Under the guidance of the temple interpreter, the young students stepped into the mountain gate, visited the Galan Hall, the Shakya ManiHall and other palaces in turn, and listened carefully to the architectural layout of the temple and the Buddhist cultural connotation. The simple cornice arch of wooden architecture and solemn statues make Taiwanese youth stop and stare from time to time. At the Historical and Cultural Museum of the temple, a group of people had a close-up view of precious cultural relics such as stone tablets, sacrificial tails, bowls and dishes from the Tang and Song dynasties, experiencing the accumulation of time in the millennium old temple.

Subsequently, the martial arts troupe of the Southern Shaolin Temple presented a wonderful and unparalleled Zen and martial arts performance to the Taiwanese compatriots who came from afar - Wei Tuo Quan was powerful and powerful, hard qigong was awe inspiring, bench and stick techniques were displayed in rotation, and the moves were sharp, shouting loudly, and the applause on site was thunderous.

After the performance, a Taiwanese player sighed and said, "Shaolin martial arts have a long history of inheritance in Taiwan. Today, I can see the authentic Zen martial arts performance with my own eyes at the South Shaolin Temple, which feels particularly familiar." As a witness to the cultural continuity of martial arts between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, South Shaolin martial arts have been introduced to Taiwan as early as the Ming and Qing dynasties, becoming an important branch of the origin of Taiwanese martial arts.

For many years, the Southern Shaolin Temple has continued to use Zen and martial arts culture as a link, actively playing a bridging role in the integration and development of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The visit of Taiwanese university student players this time is another "two-way journey" of cross-strait youth using culture as a carrier. As the abbot of the Southern Shaolin Temple, Master Kong Xing, once said, compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share the same roots and bloodline. We hope that the younger generation can strengthen their sense of belonging to the excellent traditional Chinese culture through personal experience, and jointly safeguard the roots of Chinese culture.