Longmen Caves

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Luoyang - 10.02.06

The 10th Feb was a pretty hectic day. Not only did we visit the Shaolin temple (previous entry) we also just managed to get a bus to Luoyang - over an hour away - and visit the Longmen caves before catching a midnight train to Xi'an.

The Longmen caves are over 100,000 images and statues of the budda carved into the cliffs by the Yi River. Some are straight onto the cliff face and others are in little grottos. Many of the buddas have been partly destroyed over the years (souvenir hunters apparently) but it is still worth visiting if only for the Ancestor Worshipping Temple which is a large cave carved around AD 672 with a massive seated budda.

We had a peaceful 2 hours stroll along the river and I had my picture taken with one of the policemen - for some reason he wanted a picture with me and who am I to refuse an officer of the law!!

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Photos

Longmen Caves
Ancestor Worshipping Cave

Women wash clothes by the river
This is now a familiar sight to us.. we always check a place has a washing machine before doing our laundry there!!