Shaolin Temple, the legendary home of Chinese kung fu, has made headlines in the past few years. Whenever it did so, controversy followed along with accusations about  "over-commercialization," or skepticism over abbot Shi Yongxin's attempts to "sell" the famous Buddhist holy land.

At a cultural industry forum at Peking University on Saturday, Shi announced that Shaolin has opened more than 40 companies abroad, in cities like Berlin and London.

Besides, it now has close to 130 martial arts clubs in the US, where monks teach local people meditation, kung fu and Chinese.

The news attracted no fewer eyeballs than before, and many commented in a sarcastic manner.

To many people, a temple is a reclusive place outside the bustles of the material world. Monks ring the bell and pray every day and they live on donations of visitors who show up to ask a favor of the Buddha.

When a monk like Shi travels frequently by plane and promote his businesses, secular society cannot keep up.

He established Warrior Monks Group to perform in 1989. He set up Henan Shaolinsi Television Co in 1997 and Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Company in 1998. His was the first Buddhist temple to open a website.

In addition, the Shaolin Temple has organized many performances abroad. They have performed in 50 cities around 29 countries in less than three years, according to Shi.

It was reported that each year the Shaolin Temple earn more than 100 million yuan ($15 million) from temple tickets sales, the sale of Shaolin products online and the performance of its monks.

The local government in Henan gets even more from the tourism industry mainly due to Shaolin.

In this material society, we should not be so surprised with changes at the 1,500-year-old temple. The development of religion also needs financial support.

The environment in which the Shaolin Temple operates is evolving. It has to adapt to the new environment to avoid being eliminated or marginalized.

It is no problem for the facility to use its advantages to explore ways to sustain and develop.

And we might not raise eyebrows at going global either.

While spreading ideas has been the traditional theme of most religions, Shaolin's ventures abroad also help China spread its traditional culture and thinking, and gain more understanding through a civil channel.

This channel may work better than 100 advertisements to convey a rosier image of China.