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So! You ant to be a Shaolin Warrior...

Living in the Shaolin Temple Wushu School at the age of eight was a memorable year in Chen Lei's life. As a young child, Chen Lei loved Chinese Martial Arts and watched Chinese Kung Fu movies whenever he had the chance. With this special interest in mind, when his father saw an advertisement for the Shaolin Temple Wushu School, he asked Chen Lei if would like to attend. Chen Lei was delighted. His parents felt it would also help him to develop and strengthen both his independence and his small, thin frame.

When he first left home, it was his older brother who took him on the long train journey of more than 40 hours - a long way from his family, hometown and everything with which he had been familiar.

At that time, the conditions in the Temple school were harsh. Days were long and tiring and the meals consisted of small servings of bland food. Water had to be pumped from a well. Students slept 40 to a room in double bunk beds. Nothing was like home!

Every morning, along with his older classmates, Chen Lei rose at 5.30 to start running 10kms, either on campus or the nearby roads. From 9.00 -.11.00 students could choose to attend Chinese language classes or Wushu classes. Chen Lei usually went to language classes about three times a week. In the language classroom, one teacher was responsible for the three grade levels that shared the one dirt-floor room, with about 10 students per class.
In the Wushu classes, there were usually about 40 students per level all lined up in groups under the trees. Here Chen Lei was able to move about from class to class because he was young and cute. He found he liked the young adult class (probably because they gave him a lot of attention) so he finally settled there. It was here that he received his basic training in Chinese Wushu.

Every afternoon from 2.00-5.00, Wushu classes continued and the evenings were for practice. Occasionally there was a special evening treat, watching a Chinese movie.

Breakfast consisted of Baozi (large dumplings) cooked in a huge pot. Lunch and dinner were always one vegetable dish and mantou (a type of bread). Chen Lei was used to eating meat and spicy dishes so his mother sent him bottles of spice to add to his vegetable dishes. In the year he was there, there two meat meals - one for the Chinese Moon Festival celebration and the other on the National Day.

While he attended the school, Chen Lei loved the fact that everyone wore a similar uniform and he loved the opportunity to use weapons. When he went home for a month's holiday at the end of the first semester, he was very proud of his T Shirts with the school name. He liked to tell stories about his experiences to his friends and found that they admired the skills he had developed. He could fight well! He was quite a hero to his hometown peers.
When he returned to Shaolin after the holidays, it was his father who took him back. He became aware of the conditions in which his young son had been living and wanted to take him home again. But Chen Lei insisted that he must stay. The first night, his father slept in his bed while Chen Lei shared with a friend. Not wanting to leave his son behind nor say goodbye, his father left before Chen Lei woke the following day. When he discovered his father had left, Chen Lei became very unsettled and needed a great deal of comforting from the older students. For many nights, he cried soundlessly in his bed but he gradually became used to the life again.

Looking back, he says, he cannot believe now that he did stay there for a whole year at such a young age. He feels he learnt a lot from the experience though and it prepared him for leaving home again just a couple of years later. First to join the Yunan Province Athletics School in YuXi and then to Kunming when he was selected to join the Provincial Professional Sports Team.

Chen Lei went on to win four National Championship Titles as a professional sportsperson. In 1994 he attained Masters Level in Chinese Martial Arts, the highest degree. In 1996, he entered Beijing University of Physical Education to study for his bachelors degree in Wushu. In 1999, he became a National Wushu Competition Judge and he graduated with his degree in the same year.