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Published: January 6th 2012
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In Pingyao we met a nice French lady named Maria and she told us about the Luoyang caves she was just going to. Even though we already visited Yungang Grottoes in Datong we decided to check this place out. Besides, Luoyang is a base place for visiting Shaolin Temples so we were quite happy to stop there.
We choose International Youth Hostel in the Old Town, quite far away from the train station. We just thought there would be far more charm in this place then in new town development. Luoyang is a rather big town, however transport system is very efficient so we had few bus options to the Old Town and were dropped by the main square where Hostel was located. This hostel was not listed in Lonely Planet and maybe we should have known better (nor we read reviews of this place, just assumed YHA hostel would be ok). Hated this place from the very beginning really.
It was some kind of office building converted into the hostel with open air staircase bringing all the cold inside (the temperature outside was in general below 0). There was laundry hanging everywhere and water was literally running down
the stairs. Their lounge area was cute but so cold that it was impossible to sit around. Unfortunately this place was the only place where Wi-fi worked so we were forced to spent some time over there in our full attire, hat and gloves included. Our room was no better though. When we arrived it was so cold we could not stay inside. There was a small heating unit on the wall but not sufficient enough to warm up the entire room. It took us more than 24h to warm it up and still we had to sleep in our clothes – madness.
There were two Canadian ladies that checked in at the same time and they had better and more expensive room and the staff warmed it up for them – how unfair!!! Only because they paid a little bit more then us? We came across this cold temperatures inside of the buildings everywhere in China. I am not sure if they don't mind the cold or they try to save money on energy? Nobody bothers to close the door when they enter/exit, windows are never sealed and closed properly, heaters are not really heaters – what is
this all about??
It really made us angry when in the middle of the night two other girls joined us in the room, unpacking, moving furniture etc. Of course it was a 4 people dorm so we could not complain but the whole 3 floors of the hostel were empty. Did they really have to send them to our room to wake us up in the middle of the night? The next day, the girls were transferred to another room – where is logic in that??? You could say that we could move to another place - right?. We thought about it but at that point we already knew we would be leaving the next day and changing hostels would take too much time of our day ;-(
Anyhow, apart from the hostel we really enjoyed the town. At the Qingniangong Square loads of people gather each day for some kind of activities. Some of them dancing, some of them exercising, some of them playing net ball etc. Mostly they were older people that have loads of time on their hands but it was nice to acknowledge that they don’t spend their time watching TV and moaning about
the world hahha They all seemed in very good heath physically and mentally and we were greeted with smiles everywhere.
There are few food stands in the morning where you can get some nice egg pancake or local soup but generally the supermarket at the square is the best place to shop for food. The prices of fruit, warm pancakes straight from the bakery were unbeatable. There is also a night market near the Qingniangong Square offering variety of local food and other products. We did in fact discover new dish in Luoyang. It was a vegetarian cold soup with peanut souse and pasta made of rice flour pancake. We could watch the cook when he made the pasta in front of us and the taste was great;-)
We decided to only visit Longmen Caves and skip the Shaolin Temples. For one thing we did not want to stay in this hostel any more and for second we heard that Shaolin is a complex of rebuilt temples that are not that special. There are great trekking opportunities over there but not in December when you cannot see anything ;-( I know, I know we have been blaming a
lot of our travel decisions on the weather lately. In fact we discovered that there is no such thing as climbing a mountain for free in China. Paying steep 250Y or even 300Y (30£) for a ticket and not seeing anything is not ideal for us then;-(
The grottoes on the other had were fantastic. We thought that after seeing Yungang Caves we might not enjoy it so much but we loved the experience. There seem to be far fewer grottoes to see as most of them are located quite high up in the rocks but the ones you can actually sightsee are great. Weathering and vandalism during the revolution did not help this place and many of the Buddha statues lack their heads. They are slowly being discovered and brought back to China from museums around the world where private collectors had donated them.
We were rather lucky with the weather turning sunny and mild as well. The main grotto (Ancestor Worshipping Temple) with 9 massive statues is the most impressive among all of them. The detail is amazing even despite the years they all have lasted. We could not see any foreign visitors but there were
Stretching on the main square
this guy must have been over 70 at least and there were plenty of people like him around ;-) groups of Chinese tours everywhere so we had to try to avoid them. If someone has ever been around the Chinese tour guide with a microphone in a place where acoustics are very good – they understand why ;-) Of course we were asked for photos with some groups and that was fine. As long as they ask ;-) There is also a temple and garden included in the price of a tickets and they are both interesting, especially the garden design.
There is so many nice things in China that we would just want to copy for our home back in UK. Maybe the furniture, maybe the porcelain basin or the garden design. I do walk around taking photos of these things and gather business cards that may come handy in the future;-)
Next day we were happy to move on to Nanjing, closer towards Shanghai where the temperatures should be far better now ;-)
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Cold rooms
Perhaps they thought they were doing you a favor by putting two others in your room to help heat it up! Anyway, best to move south to warner parts. Keep up the good blogs.