Luo Yang Yang

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好久不见

Back by popular demand, its Brendan's Travel Blog!

After spending time down south in Shanghai (overwhelming), Suzhou (overpriced), and Nanjing (just right), I have arrived in Luoyang. Luoyang is one of China's four ancient capitals, all of which I have now visited.

I arrived Thursday morning after a night sitting on a train with insufficient sleep. First I tried to buy a ticket to Lanzhou, but they were all booked up. Seems the East-West train line up here is quite busy. While walking to the hotel through the train station square, I was accosted with many offers to go to the Shaolin Temple. One guy was particularly obtuse, and seeing me coming, shouted "Laowai!" (foreigner!) and made the familiar offer, to which I responded "Do I look like I came to China yesterday?" He took it in stride and said, "You look like you want to go to the Shaolin Temple!"

Found the "hostel" easy enough. A big standard Chinese hotel, but also offers hostel beds for 50 kuai a night. I booked one day and arrived....in a large empty room with four beds, and air conditioner, a shower with occasionally warm water, an ethernet cable for connecting to the internet, and no other people! Jackpot!

After a much-needed nap I went to the train station. It had rained very hard during my rest, and the streets were flooded. I ended up buying a hard seat to Xining. When arriving back at my room I met a very kind Polish couple who had checked in. After about an hour of friendly conversation we made plans to meet in the Old City.

My walk to the Old City was interrupted by the unfortunate necessity of utilizing a public toilet. Remember in China to always carry some sort of toilet-paper like object in your pockets! Also, if you ever have "troubles", try eating nothing for a meal or two except bananas and yoghurt (this has saved my life more than once).

The Old City had a nice feel - a large Hui (ethnic Chinese Muslim) population, lots of street food, and medieval architecture that blends unselfconsciously into the neighborhood. I met my new friends for food, and we were lucky enough to run into yet another Polish couple.

The next day we took a city bus from the train station to the Longmen Grottoes - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Grottoes are old - work on the limestone cliffs began more than 1,500 year ago. The landscape in the surrounding hills was quite nice - tall evergreens, clear air, moist ground. I had been under the impression that this area is quite dry, but apparently I was mistaken.

The entrance tickets were, as always, expensive. 120 kuai to see what is in fact a holy site to Chinese Buddhists. 24 hours pay for a construction worker. 24 (or 30) dishes on egg chow mein. 240 baozi. Four hour-long foot massages. A young American was holding up one of the ticket lines in a (presumably futile) protests against the fact that only Chinese students can buy half-pried tickets.

The caves themselves were very very impressive (see attached images). Some had been beheaded by Western art dealers, and others vandalized by Red Guards (无知的混蛋) during the Cultural Revolution. Still, the really big ones survived - few people want to mess with a 57-foot tall Buddha.

After arriving back at the train station my new friends were overcharged for items bought in a small connivence store. This made me angry, especially because such behavior is virtually unheard of in smaller cities. I argued with the shopkeeper, and was able to get one kuai back for my friends, and more importantly, make the shopkeeper lose face. As we left he tried to overcharge a Chinese guy for a bottle of water, so at least we didn't suffer from discrimination based on our foreigness.

The fried noodles here are served dry (i.e not drenched in grease). The noodles themselves are small. Five kuai got me a plate with an egg on top and a broth made of green onion, water, vinegar, and some sort of fish (or fungus?). It was more than I could eat.

This afternoon was spent in a ill-fated attempt to find a museum. Turns out it is closed. However I did manage to find an interesting park wherein I spied a glimpse of China's Dread Robot Army.

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Photos

Up in the Tower..
On the Right, Buddha, on the left...