Prince Simon of Bulgaria training in Kung Fu in China (left) and with his mother (right)
Bulgarian Prince Simeon, 19, set a record when he decided to shun the luxuries of his palace in Sofia and enroll in a residential Shaolin Kung Fu class in China.
His mother, Princess Kalina of Bulgaria, is world-famous for her athletic body transformation. It turns out that the prince also has a passion for physical training. Before focusing on Kung Fu, Prince Simon trained extensively in Taekwondo in South Korea.According to Hula, the prince went to Mount Song in Henan Province in November, and now, after completing the initial training, he has received his Chinese name: Si Miao Tian, which translates to “Great Disciple of the Buddha of the Brilliant Heaven.”
The school said Brynn Simeon is its only Western student.“After passing the exam, what filled him most with happiness was being accepted as a disciple by Great Master Wang Hengying in a formal ceremony. This meant a lot to Simon. Master Wang Hengying, who devoted himself to spreading and promoting the culture of traditional Chinese martial arts, was his mentor and coach,” the school said.
The prince’s daily routine at school was strict. He would wake up at five in the morning to follow a demanding training program of eight to ten hours a day and follow the same daily routine as all the other students. After passing the exam, he received his first certificate from the hands of the great master Wang Henjing. For two months, he was without a phone. He was not able to contact his parents until he arrived at school and before the end of his stay.A typical day in Prince Simon’s life in China began with a run in nature at five in the morning. These rest periods continued throughout the day as they practiced kung fu for 8-10 hours daily until then.The school said the only exception it made for the prince was to allow him to stay with the coaches, but that was not because he was a prince but that the prince was facing a language barrier with his classmates. So the authorities allowed Prince Simon to live near the city of Dengfeng in Henan Province, in the impressive 58,000 square meter complex, and he slept in the Quanxi Building with the coaches.
