A father in south China has hired a Shaolin kungfu master as a bodyguard to protect his daughter, 6, on her way to and from school following a widespread string of fatal assaults on pupils.

The father, surnamed Liu, who owns two printing houses in Foshan City of Guangdong Province, said he hired monk Hu Qiong, 38, as he fretted over his only daughter after the spate of mindless and murderous attacks.

Liu said he and his wife were too busy to see their daughter to school and pick her up each day.

The job of Hu, a Shaolin monk since the age of 8, is to drive the girl to school at 7:10am daily.

He then waits at least three minutes at the entry gates to make sure she has gone into the classroom safe and sound while checking out school grounds for potential peril.

At 5 pm, he arrives to pick the girl up and maintains a similar routine.

The job takes Hu only about an hour every day and brings him a salary of 10,000 yuan (US$1,464) a month, plus a monthly traffic allowance of 1,000 yuan.

Hu has been formally crowned as an "Iron Man" for his extraordinary martial-art feats.

He is myriad-skilled and has been known to break a large stone with his head.

Schools across the country have beefed up security after President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao told officials to prioritize campus safety.