160 mln yuan invested in Shaolin temple rebuilding

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A report that the Shaolin Temple will spend 2 billion yuan to rebuild a temple in Jixian county of Tianjin appeared on the Internet on Monday.

Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple denies the 2-billion-yuan investment. But confirms the temple invested 160 million yuan according to a rebuilding plan. Further investment should be decided by the actual situation.

Back in 2007, the Shaolin Temple agreed with related departments in Tianjin on the rebuilding of the Jixian county temple, also known as the North Shaolin Temple. Shi says the North Shaolin Temple is the oldest branch of Shaolin Temple on record. Rebuilding of the temple will help spread the Shaolin culture. Recently, Shaolin Temple sped up its process of culture expansion and established many business entities. Some believe the moves help spread its culture, while some criticized it as exploitation of its culture.