Blogs from Luoyang, Henan, China, Asia - page 4

Hi All, Today we finally got to see the Longmen Grottoes. These caves are about 15 kms outside the city. We got there without much problem. The only problem we are having at the minute is the heat. It has been around 30 degrees today, which isn't that much of a problem, with around 75-80% humidity, which has been a problem. It feels like we are walking around inside a pressure cooker. we hope from the photos that you can see how big the place was. We started on the west side of the river and then crossed over to the east side and went up to the temple and walked around the gardens. If anyone is considering visiting I would seriously recommend coming here in spring or autumn because the heat has really been unbearable ... read more

We left for the trip the day after our finals, Saturday night. We got on an overnight train from Beijing to Luoyang. The train was not as nice as the train we took last semester from Beijing to Xi’an. It was the same set up with six beds together then a wall, but unlike the Xi’an train, there was no wall between the beds and the hallway, so it was really just a big open area. We talked to some very nice people, which seems like a common occurrence on trains in China. I slept well and was ready to start my trip when we arrived in Luoyang early the next morning. First we went to the Shaolin Temple, which is the home of a very famous martial arts school. Kids are brought to the school ... read more

After a very long and backwards route, our sleeper bus arrived in Luoyang at 04.20 in the dark, so after waiting for daybreak as well as our own brains to begin working, we took bus 81 to the Longmen caves about an hour away. Also known as the dragon grottoes, they are rock carvings created about 1200 years ago, and took 400 years to complete. A highlight was the 17m high Buddha - particularly impressive when viewed from the opposite side of the river. We spent a good few hours walking up and down either side of the river. At 120 Yuan, they are a relatively expensive attraction, but worth it - they were an impressive sight with thousands of Buddhas carved in the rocks, some tiny, others very detailed. We left for Xi’an that night ... read more

I took a seven hour train ride to Zhenzhou, arriving late, and then a three and a half hour bus-ride to the town of Luoyang. The next day I was up early to get the public bus out to the Longmen grottoes. They obviously didn't get too many foreign tourists on the bus, as pretty much everyone stared at me for the 50 minute journey... It was worth it though, as the Longmen carvings were brought to us by the same folks that gave us the Yungang caves, after they'd moved their capital from Datong to Luoyang. The carvings were incredible and much more liufe-like than anything I'd seen in China thus far, but many of them had been damaged by either fire, water or the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution. I spent most of ... read more

((After the experience of living in the Hong Kong Temple, I returned to China for 30 days. There I came to two places, very magical and mystical places. Here I want to share, through some poems and photos, my deep love and appreciation that I feel when in China, especially when in such places as these)) Longmen (Dragon Gates)~These Buddhist...caves, more like a portion of a river valley that has been scultped into a window giving view of the Buddhist conceptualized universe, have been chissled, carved, crafted and adored for over 1500 long and slow years, while the river peacefully made its course. And I wrote this poem there to express my awe and wonder and appreciation and perception. Ancient River Yi How long have you carried messages to the sea As even now you bring ... read more