Buddhist master Shiyanwang, who is employed by the Hong Kong Culture Association, went to work in that city through a specialist import scheme and has begun to teach Shaolin internal cultivation exercise–Yijin Xisui Gong.

A number of high officials and personages receive Shiyanwang's training, including Lam Sai-wing, chairman of Hang Fung Gold Technology Limited. Moreover, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has invited the master to guide its twenty-eight high officials in conference room exercises.

The popular master has been a member of the Shaolin Temple for twenty years. At first he studied martial arts as his major. Nine years ago, he suffered pancreatic cancer and began to focus on internal cultivation exercises to preserve his health. Familiar with the Hong Kong lifestyle, Shiyanwang has an endless flow of customers.

Twenty members of the special exercise class pay HK,400 each, while members of the one-day fine exercise class, which is jointly run as a Shaolin cultural activity, pay HK each. Shiyanwang refused to reveal his income. But, according to Lee Kwok Keung, director of the Hong Kong Culture Association, the master earns more than one million HK dollars annually.

Shiyanwang graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, which claims Gong Li, an international movie queen, as an alumna. However, he said that he never intends to join film circles. He explained that monks have little desire, neither loving pretty women nor eating meat. "One should seek hope from the regrets in his lifetime," he said.

In accordance with the modern life of Hong Kong, Shiyanwang has reformulated Yijin Xisui Gong and created two exercises --Xiaozhi Gong (help losing fat) and Yizhi Gong (help the brains) -- for Hong Kong people. In addition, he has also introduced another exercise named "Shaolin Fuan Gong," which is suitable for white-collar workers. It helps cure aches in the waist, neck and limbs resulting from "office syndrome."

(Chinanews.cn April 28, 2005)