Blogs from Luoyang, Henan, China, Asia

When I arrived at longmen, I was overwhelmed by the great Buddhist art found there. Thousands of caves and niches can be witnessed along the great limestone cliffs extending for about a mile and containing more than 100,000 Buddhist stone statues. For the lovers of Buddhist history, Longmen is probably one of the most striking Buddhist site I have seen, while travelling in China. The grottoes are situated about ten kilometers south of the historical city of Luoyang and I lodged in a guest house just outside of downtown. The entire complex is settled in a beautiful mountain scenary on both sides of the Yi river. It was a lovely day at the end of october, the air was not aggressive, tourism diminished, twittering birds created a lovely ambiance, street vendors selling food and those imposing ... read more

Luoyang and Zhengzhou in central China, 9 & 10 May 2015 Today we experienced out first Bullet Train ride, from Xi’an to Luoyang, one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. The railway station was another very new, big station. We had to wait for 1 ½ hours, only because we arrived early. The train was punctual, as you would expect. We had 3 minutes to get the 37 of us and our suit cases on the train but by now, we were all a well oiled machine. We had no one wing the group who we had to wait for. Once on the train, in our designated seats, it was no time before the train was traveling at 303 kph. It certainly didn’t feel like that speed, and the train was very quiet and ... read more

26.5.14 Destination: DENGFENG Distance: 149 Kms SubT. 1,116 Kms Bal 10,867 Kms Road Condition: tricky roadworks 50%, balance OK Weather: fine, dust and coal dust smog Time in Saddle: 7.75 hrs Av Speed: av. 18 kph. Av Cadence. 68 Rpm Elevation: 1060 m up; M down Calories burned : 5648 Today was the hardest day yet. Road with Swiss and Italian fellows today, hoping they may have been slower that the OZ group I had been riding with. A forlorn hope, they were just as strong. Managed to hang on, I hope I am getting stronger. At times I have my doubts! The first 25% was through reasonably scenic landscape, much like I am used to in Oz. Afterwards it all went downhill, literally and figuratively. Roadworks are happening each day, the extent is amazing. 30+ ... read more

Luoyang & Shaolin temple ( 洛阳&少林寺 ） It has two way to go to Shaolin Temple one from Luoyang city and another is Zhengzhou city (use about 2 hr. to come) this episode I showed Luoyang province and Shaolin Temple ... read more

Chongdugou, Finally the Victor…. This past weekend my school took all 11 foreign teachers on a two-day outing for this semester. Chongdugou is national/state park outside of Luoyang about four hours away. In America it would be a slightly above average state park at best. Chinese people seem to be enthralled by anything involving nature. I think its due to the majority spend all their time living in large cities. Me being from the great state of West Virginia, it takes something extraordinary in nature to impress me. The park was filled with small Chinese hostels of only 20 or so rooms. They try to sell it has “come see what country living is like” but no one is doing any type of farming or any other type of “country” activities. However the food we ate ... read more