How to Learn Kung Fu in China: Shaolin Schools, Wudang Courses and Visas

If you want to actually train in kung fu in China, not just watch it, you have three realistic options. You can join a private martial arts school in Dengfeng, the town next to Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, for anything from one week upwards. You can train at a Daoist academy on Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province, where short courses are priced by the day with room and meals included. Or, if you only have an hour or two, you can book a taster class through a hotel in Beijing or Shanghai. Official guidance does not address a single taster class taken while sightseeing; for anything you enrol in, plan on an X2 study visa, because study is not one of the purposes that visa-free entry covers.

How a Foreign Visitor Can Learn Kung Fu in China

First, a quick word on the names, because they decide where you go. Kung fu (功夫, gōngfu) means a skill built through long, hard practice; Chinese people use wushu (武术, wǔshù, "martial arts") as the general term for fighting styles. Shaolin kung fu comes from the Buddhist Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng and is the fast, powerful style with kicks, jumps and staff work that most people picture. Wudang martial arts come from the Daoist temples on Wudang Mountain and lean toward slower internal styles such as Wudang tai chi, sword forms and qigong (气功, breathing and energy exercises). If you want leaps and power, look at Dengfeng. If you want something calmer that you can keep practising at home, look at Wudang.

A week is the shortest stay that makes sense at a school. In a week you learn basic stances, stretching and the first part of one form. In a month you can finish a beginner form and start to feel the routine. Anything less than a week is better done as a taster class.

Dengfeng: Short Courses Near Shaolin Temple

Shaolin Temple itself does not publish a training course for foreign visitors online. The courses foreigners can actually book are run by private schools in Dengfeng, the small city around the temple. The very large boarding schools there, such as Tagou (塔沟), are built around full-time students, so for a short stay look for a school that sets out its foreign-student terms in English.

One school that does publish its terms in English is the Song Mountain Shaolin Kung Fu School (登封嵩山少林功夫学校), in the "kung fu village" beside the temple. Its courses run from one week to five years. You pay a non-refundable application fee of US$100, which covers your room booking and a pickup at Zhengzhou airport or railway station. After that, room and meals cost US$400 a month and tuition US$590 a month, with tuition dropping a little each month you stay longer. Courses of one month or less are not refundable, so only book a short course once your dates are fixed. The fee page lists monthly prices only, so ask the school by email for the exact price of a one- or two-week stay and check it in writing before you pay. You can read the full terms on the school's fee page.

The table below lists the kung fu and tai chi courses in China that publish their prices and minimum stays, including the two Wudang academies covered in the next section, so you can compare them side by side.

Before you send a deposit to any school, ask four things by email: which language the coaches teach in, what the price includes (room type, meals, laundry, training clothes), what happens to your money if you leave early, and which visa document the school can issue. Keep the replies. Also be careful with names: plenty of training centres put "Shaolin" in their name or web address without being in Dengfeng. One well-known site, shaolintemple.com, runs its training centre in Xingtai, in Hebei Province, which is a different province from Shaolin Temple.

Training at a school and visiting the temple are separate things. A normal temple ticket costs 80 yuan and includes the kung fu show inside the scenic area. Students usually visit the temple on a rest day. For tickets, opening hours and buses from Zhengzhou or Luoyang, see our Shaolin Temple guide.

Wudang Mountain: Daoist Kung Fu and Tai Chi Courses

Wudang Mountain (武当山, Wǔdāngshān) is in Shiyan, in the northwest of Hubei Province. It is a Daoist mountain with temples spread along its ridges, and the schools there teach Wudang tai chi, sword, qigong and other internal styles. Two academies publish their prices online.

Wudang Daoist Traditional Kungfu Academy (WDTKA, 武当道家传统武术学院). This academy teaches foreign students with English support. Fees cover training, your room and three meals a day. Short stays are priced per day: in a single room it is 1,050 yuan a day for one week, 720 yuan a day for two weeks and 610 yuan a day for three weeks. To book, you pay a 300 euro or US dollar deposit, send a scan of your passport photo page, and the school issues an invitation letter. Training runs Monday to Saturday: a morning class from 06:30 to 07:30, main classes from 09:00 to 11:30 and 15:00 to 17:00, and meditation on weekday evenings; Saturday is assessment day and Sunday is a rest day. Beginners are accepted, and the academy says you do not need to speak Chinese, because teaching is mostly by demonstration and English-speaking students and coaches help translate. Details are on the academy's fees page. The academy is about 25 minutes from Wudangshan West railway station and about an hour from Shiyan East station.

Wudang Hongdao Kung Fu Academy (武当山弘道功夫馆). This one sits inside the scenic area at Nanyan (南岩). It runs custom short courses that you can start at any time if you book ahead, and you pay per form plus a daily charge for room and meals. For example, Wudang Tai Chi 13 Forms takes 7 to 15 days and costs 2,600 yuan, and room with three meals is 280 yuan a day in a standard double room or 360 yuan in a single. You reserve with a 1,000 yuan deposit, and if you leave early for personal reasons you get no refund, but you can come back within a year to finish. Its website is in Chinese only and does not say whether it takes foreign students or what language classes are in, so confirm both by email or phone before you plan around it.

Expect a health check. The Hongdao academy asks every student for a medical report less than a month old, covering at least blood pressure, blood sugar and an ECG, plus a mental health screening, and asks you to arrive a day before you start. Getting these done at home before you fly is far easier than finding a clinic in Shiyan. There is also a local rule that protects you: since June 2026, martial arts schools in the Wudangshan Special Zone must hold a training licence and post their fees, refund rules and a complaints phone number on the wall. When you arrive, look for that notice; a school that cannot show it is a reason to ask more questions.

Course fees cover training, room and meals; scenic-area tickets are bought separately, so ask the school whether students get an entry arrangement (Hongdao sits inside the scenic area). For Wudang's tickets, the cable car and the high-speed rail stations, plus Chen Village in Henan, where tai chi began, see our guide to tai chi experiences in China.

Beijing and Shanghai: Taster Classes

If you have one free morning in a big city, a taster class is the realistic choice. The classes with official booking pages are tai chi rather than Shaolin-style kung fu, and they are run by hotels. Mandarin Oriental Qianmen in Beijing offers a one-hour tai chi session for 1 to 3 people at 1,080 yuan plus a 15% service charge, booked at least a day ahead. Mandarin Oriental Pudong in Shanghai runs a 45-minute tai chi class on its lawn for 200 yuan per person plus 15%, also booked a day ahead. Neither page says what language the teacher uses or whether non-guests can join, so ask both when you book.

For a Shaolin-style kung fu taster in either city, ask your hotel concierge, or browse the kung fu classes listed on Klook. Before you pay, check three things: how long the class really is, whether it takes place in a studio or a public park, and whether the teacher or an interpreter speaks English.

Which Visa You Need for a Kung Fu Course

China's visa-free entry covers business, tourism, visiting family and friends, exchange visits and transit; the Chinese embassy states that people coming to work or study are not covered, and that visa-free visitors must not do things that do not match their reason for entry. The L visa is the tourist visa. The visa for study is the X visa: X2 is for study in China of up to 180 days, and you apply with an admission notice from a school or other organisation in China; X1 is for study longer than 180 days, and university students apply with a JW201 or JW202 form plus a copy of the admission letter. See the Chinese embassy's visa requirements page for the full document list, and check the page of the embassy or consulate where you will actually apply, because lists differ slightly by country.

What this means in practice:

• A single taster class while you are sightseeing: official guidance does not address a one-off class taken as a tourist activity; keep it to that, and do not sign up for a multi-day course on a tourist entry.
• A course you enrol in, even for one week: official guidance does not define whether a short course counts as study, so the safe choice is an X2 visa. The X2 checklist asks for an admission notice; an invitation letter is not always the same thing, so ask the school which document it issues and check with the embassy that it will be accepted. Settle this before you pay a deposit: if the school cannot provide a document the embassy accepts, the X2 route may not be open.
• Long-term training of more than 180 days: X1. Ask the school before you pay whether it can issue the documents your embassy asks for; many private martial arts schools cannot.
• Coaching or teaching for pay, even part-time at the school: that is work, and work in China needs a Z visa and a work permit.

Some schools say a tourist visa is fine for their courses. Follow the embassy's rules, not the school's, because it is you who answers the questions at the border. Our guide to China visa types explains how the different visa letters work.

Where to Watch Kung Fu

The most reliable place to see Shaolin kung fu is Shaolin Temple itself. The scenic area holds kung fu shows in its demonstration hall several times every morning and afternoon, and they are included in your entry ticket. Check the times posted at the hall on the day. Near Dengfeng there is also Zen Shaolin Music Ritual (禅宗少林·音乐大典), an outdoor night-time show on Mount Song that first opened in 2006; its 2026 edition opened in March 2026 with upgraded martial arts scenes. Showtimes, ticket prices and whether it runs in winter change by season, so confirm them with your hotel or the official ticket channel before you plan an evening around it. If you only have a day, a guided day trip to Shaolin from Zhengzhou or Luoyang on GetYourGuide handles the transport for you.

In Beijing, kung fu stage shows come and go. The city's culture and tourism bureau publishes a weekly listing of commercial performances in Chinese; check it for the words 功夫 (kung fu) or 武术 (martial arts) to see what is on that week. Very large shows for 5,000 people or more must sell real-name tickets, one per ID document, and the name on the ticket must match the person going in. Theatre shows are much smaller, and each venue sets its own rules, so check the booking page for whether you need your passport. On Damai, China's main ticket platform, each show's sales page carries a label such as non-refundable or refundable on conditions, so read that label before you pay. Beijing's resident theatre shows are mostly acrobatics; our guide to acrobatic shows in China covers which theatres to go to and how to book.

Before You Start Training

Kung fu training is hard on knees, hips and lower backs, even for fit people. Start stretching a few weeks before you go, and tell your coach on day one about any old injuries. Check your travel insurance for exclusions on martial arts or "hazardous activities"; many policies treat them differently from sightseeing, and our guide to travel insurance for China shows which clauses to read. If you do get hurt, our list of English-speaking hospitals in China helps you find care. If you plan to buy a sword or staff to take home, check your airline's rules for carrying it before you buy.

Summary

To learn kung fu in China, pick your route by how much time you have. With an hour or two in Beijing or Shanghai, book a hotel taster class and confirm the language. With a week or more, choose a school: Dengfeng next to Shaolin Temple for Shaolin-style training, or Wudang Mountain for tai chi, sword and other Daoist styles. Shaolin Temple itself does not take bookings for foreign students online, so book with a school that publishes its prices and refund rules, and get the answers in writing. If you are enrolling, apply for an X2 visa with the school's admission notice instead of relying on visa-free entry. Get a medical check and read your insurance policy before you fly, then visit the temple or the mountain on your rest day.

Last updated: November 2026