A Shaolin vision for the Shoalhaven
BY GLENN ELLARD
15/04/2009 8:20:00 AM
THE Shaolin tourism and residential complex at Falls Creek may be at least four years from completion, but it still promised a wide range of benefits to the Shoalhaven, according to the Shaolin Foundation’s Australian representative Patrick Pang.
“Shaolin has so many facets that can develop into a huge industry for Nowra,” Mr Pang said last week while visiting the Shoalhaven.
He predicted Nowra would become internationally synonymous with the Shaolin order in the years to come.
“The whole world will come here.”
Mr Pang said the Shaolin held many international seminars on topics ranging from meditation to traditional Chinese medicine, and these would attract large numbers of visitors to Nowra from around the world.
In addition, television shows may be filmed at the Shaolin complex once it is completed, according to Mr Pang, while the site will also be home to a traditional Chinese medicine industry.
“Shaolin has a lot to offer, and will bring a spotlight to Shoalhaven,” Mr Pang said.
With so much on offer to a host community, there was plenty of competition for the first Shaolin temple to be built outside China.
Mr Pang said once other countries found out about the Shaolin’s plans to build a tourism and residential complex just south of Nowra there were many offers of free land and financial assistance.
In the United Kingdom the government even offered to pay half the costs of building a new temple, he said.
“When we did this thing here, then a lot of countries came to us.”
With so much international interest in the development, Mr Pang questioned why there was so much debate over the way in which the Shaolin was choosing to pay the $5 million purchase price for the Comberton Grange property.
The order has taken advantage of one of the conditions available in the sales contract, in which Shoalhaven City Council will act as mortgagee with the Shaolin paying off the land plus interest over a number of years.
While the payment choice raised questions about the Shaolin’s ability to raise closer to $400 million needed for the project, “I’m not worried at all about the financing of this project,” Mr Pang said.
But until the State Government approved the development application, it was difficult to move funds out of China, he explained.
Mr Pang expected it to be another 12 to 18 months before the State Government passed the DA, and after that it would take about three years to complete the temple and 500-room international hotel, which would be the first components of the overall project. The temple may also require changes to building codes, as it would be built without nails just like the original temple in China’s Henan province.
While part of the temple’s woodwork would be crafted in China, much of the construction work would be carried out by local tradespeople, Mr Pang said, as the Shaolin wanted to benefit the local area by creating jobs.
He also wanted to see Shaolin monks active in the Shoalhaven, teaching their skills, medicines and philosophies, and acting as good role models.
After the temple and hotel are built, the Shaolin complex will be expanded to include an indoor exhibition hall, outdoor amphitheatre, shops and restaurants, gallery, a kung fu academy, herbal medicine gardens and facilities, and about 300 homes that would combine Chinese and Australian design principles.
Mr Pang said the home interiors would be designed along the principles of feng shui to help with positive energy flow.
He said creating a unique design, and maintaining it through the residential area, was important.
“People will come from all over the world to Shaolin, we must have something for people to see,” he said.
Initial plans also include a 27-hole golf course, which Mr Pang said was included as a firebreak, but could be replaced by vegetable gardens.
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