Nothing escapes time. Even Shaolin - the ancient Buddhist temple considered one of the earliest birthplaces of Chinese martial arts - is now treading the secular path of promoting itself through affiliated branches, following its famous globetrotting shows of acrobatics and gongfu in recent years.

This comes more than 1,500 years after Shaolin Temple, on Songshan mountain in central Henan province, was reportedly built in AD496.

To get to the Hong Kong Centre, you pass rustic village roads where the distinctive whiff of salted fish permeates the air.

The non-profit centre, which opened its doors a year ago, has hosted 6,000 people - holidaying children and working adults - who signed up for day and overnight courses that range from gongfu lessons to meditation and Zen teachings.

The centre - whose HK$19 million (S$3.6 million) building cost was paid for by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust - can accommodate 64 trainees in a facility that has an open training ground, activity hall and canteen.

Those who take up overnight martial arts lessons from the centre's three full-time masters, or sifu in Cantonese, are given a taste of Shaolin training.

Students get up at 6am and begin their day by running some 2km up a nearby hill.

This is followed by gongfu training sessions, broken only by mealtimes.

Children who live in the city may find the going tough, says Reverend Wang Meng, the youngest of the three sifu from Henan. But it is nothing compared to what he went through back home, where four-hour-long morning runs are routine.

The 21-year-old says trainees in Henan have to do chores such as cooking and laundry on top of the eight hours of training. 'My most lasting memory was having to change clothes three times, after our robes were drenched in sweat. We could rinse a bucket of perspiration out of them.

'In this sense, it is good for Hong Kong kids to take a bit of hardship, so they appreciate the life their parents and environment have given them.'

Rev Wang's skills are impressive: He prepared for a gongfu display by taking off his flimsy paper name tag and throwing it, unwaveringly straight like a missile, 5m across the air to one of his students.

But he may have been a little off the mark with the hardship remark.

Students at the centre enjoy tasty, organic vegetarian meals, and its air-conditioned bunks are clean - cosy even.

Summer camps have also been organised at the Hong Kong Gold Coast hotel in Kowloon. The two-day, one-night packages priced at HK$1,380 place parents and a child aged six to 16 in 'superior seaview rooms'.

The training sessions are held in the hotel function rooms and ballrooms.

The cost of a regular two-day camp stay at the centre starts at HK$285, while a three-day one - conducted mainly over weekends and public holidays - starts at HK$520.

The centre says the fees cover only staff salaries and facility upkeep.

One thing eight-year-old Chin Pui Yu learnt at the centre was to fold his own quilt.

'It was more difficult than I thought, but fun at the same time,' he says about the training.

The centre's administration officer, Ms Jessie Leong, admits the kids do not get the same rigorous regimen practised in China. Sightseeing trips around Tai-O are thrown in to 'take away the monotony of training'.

'These are city folk, after all, and they are here not to become martial artists, but to gain a different perspective of life and culture,' says Ms Leong, who is one of five full-time staff at the facility, excluding the sifu.

'It is also good for the children to experience a different, more rural side of Hong Kong.'

The centre has attracted more than 300 foreigners, including Singaporeans. Senior marketing officer Winnie Kong says: 'Most of the interest comes from the United States and Canada, and for them, flying to Hong Kong is more convenient than going to the Shaolin Temple in Henan.'

This dovetails perfectly with a government initiative not just to promote wushu, but also add the Shaolin brand to a healthy tourism industry on Lantau island that already features Tai-O, a famous Big Buddha statue, as well as Disneyland.

Indeed, the thought of sharing the same billing with a symbol of American capitalism - Disneyland - would not have gone down well with Shaolin loyalists not so long ago, but as the cliche goes, all things evolve.

In recent years, Shaolin monks have even won fame for choreographed martial arts displays, such as the Wheel Of Life shows, which they perform all over the world - for the price of a ticket.

Rev Wang initially declines to answer when asked if Shaolin is becoming too commercial.

When pressed, however, he replies, not unexpectedly, that it is fine as long as 'the ways of Shaolin are promoted without straying from the right path' - this being the philosophy of building a healthy mind and body.

'We just have to make the best use of what is available to us today to spread our teachings,' he says with a smile.

vincec@sph.com.sg