Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin, said he had signed a 20-year contract to manage the Tuwang, Fading, Miaozhan and Guangyin temples in Kunming. Ten monks have already been dispatched from Shaolin, in Zhengzhou near Beijing, to the temples, which are near China's borders with Burma, Laos and Vietnam. "The move will help to increase the influence of Shaolin," said a spokesman for the temple, which is famed for the kung-fu skills of its warrior monks and the "integration of Zen and martial arts".

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