Blogs from Luoyang, Henan, China, Asia - page 5

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Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang June 4th 2008

We arrived by train on Tuesday afternoon, then left by train on Wednesday night. This is what happened in between.... read more
Met these two happy souls
On the train from Xian
We needed western food in Luoyang

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang May 27th 2008

Well, we have just spent the day visiting the home of Kong Fu and I am most impressed. We arrived in Shaolin from Luoyang after visiting the Longmen Caves which is one of China's few surviving masterpieces of Buddhist rock carvings. While in Luoyang we spent the day checking out the entire face of a mountain which has been carved into a thousand images of Buddha. The detail in the carvings made it a very impressive sight. We got to Dengfeng on a local bus while dealing with the usual confused expressions, spitting and language barrier issues. The pointing, staring and occasional poke does not surprise me anymore, but I still can't get my head around their need to spit everywhere. Its disgusting, they spit on the bus, the train, the street and even the shop ... read more
Weapons Training
Weapons Training
Combat Sequences

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang May 27th 2007

Meine 11tägiger China-Round-Trip ist beendet und morgen gehts zurueck nach Muenchen. Hier schonmal der Bericht ueber die ersten 3 der 11 Tage. Die weiteren liefer ich dann am nächsten WE nach, weil ich in München erstmal kein Internet hab. In der Woche vom Vatertag hiess es erstmal Abschied nehmen: Ein Abschiedsessen mit den Deutschen, die ich hier kennen gelernt hab, ein zweites mit den 3 chinesischen Studenten, mit denen ich hier viel gemacht hab und ein drittes natürlich noch mit meiner Abteilung und meinem Chef (der uebrigens arrangiert hat, dass unsere Merkels Angy am 28 August hier nach Nanjing kommt). Hatte nicht gedacht, dass ich in der kurzen Zeit so fest Fuss fasse, so dass mir der Abschied wirklich schwer fiel. Erfreulicher war dann der Vatertag, an dem meine Rundreise startete. Mit Seb, Uwe und ... read more
schuechterne Obstverkäuferin
Mhhh....
Morgenstund...

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang May 12th 2007

Hello to you all back home, thanks for the messages and keep them coming!!! Ok so we arrived in Xi-an shortly before our last blog and it is another busy city, the smog was really bad there and we both found it difficult to walk about with the heat and air so bad. On the first day we went out and headed up one of the main streets, mostly the same type of thing we saw in Beijing. After a short walk the air was getting to us so we headed inside to a shopping centre for something to eat. It was massive with about 7 floors that went al the way round an open middle bit so you caould see down to the bottom. Each floor only sold one or two things so you ... read more
Terracotta Archer
Main Pit
Night out on Xi-an Bar street

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang March 2nd 2007

'Laowai, laowai!' Sometimes you can just catch the words being whispered by one adult to another, and sometimes it gets screamed by an excited toddler to their parents. The rough translation is, 'foreigner', but it probably has more of an effect like, 'alien'. Though not strictly an insult, it is often used in a derogatory sense - a bit like 'gringo' in South America. I hadn't heard it until I hit Luoyang. Since then I've had it about twenty times, and my responses have ranged from a cheerful wave to a barely-concealed snarl, depending on my mood and tolerance levels. The reason I heard it so much in Luoyang was because I was the only laowai there, or at least I was the only one I was aware of. And that's hardly surprising: Luoyang doesn't have ... read more
Go Jackie Chan!
Kung fu!
Chinese panel beater

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang December 28th 2006

It's a five hour train ride from Xi'an to Luoyang across the loess plateau, a geographic term to describe the chasms of clay soil and dry river beds, where homes have been carved into the cliff faces. In the trees of the farming villages hang large decorative bunches of dried corn. On a distant hilltop a factory spews smoke into the yellow-brown mud puddle sky. Bring a book or a deck of cards. I practice tai chi and I think zazen is pretty cool but I had no interest in visiting the Shaolin temple. I came to Luoyang to see the Longmen Grottoes. A couple years ago I'd been out to Datong in the north of Shanxi province on a tour of the Yungang caves. The Northern Wu dynasty had moved their capital from Datong to ... read more
the "Goddess", Longmen Grottoes
Yi River, Longmen Grottoes
Scenic Spot, Longmen Grottoes

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang July 25th 2006

It's in China, still. Although I am not I am still behind on my updates. We got into Luoyang on the 25th of July. We had to struggle to squeeze onto the metro and I think I almost crushed a girl with my backpack on the way out (I'm going to assume not my fault as they won't wait for passengers to get off the train before pushing to get on). Then got to share our train carriage with a nice chap who didn't understand too much english and certainly didnt get the concept of Su Dokus (don't mention the Japanese!) so got lots of sleep on the train and arrived to Luoyang feeling nice and refreshed (ahem) We got to the station to the usual hassle, somehow they can always spot the tourists, or at ... read more

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang July 22nd 2006

We have done so much in the last few days that we have decided just to concentrate on the highlights. We took a night train from Nanjing to Keifeng for a 10 hour trip, travelling soft sleeper. Hard sleeper folk sit up all night but we softies got bunk beds in a four bunk compartment. The corridor of the carriage was filled with cigarette smoke and we were apprehensive about our roomies-to-be. Fortunately when they turned up neither of them smoked and we were able to get a decent nights rest, arriving in Keifeng at 7.20 a.m. I had woken at 6 and we stopped at one or two stations, none of which had their name anywhere in English and so I was worried that we would not know when we reached our stop. Fortunately ... read more
Kung Fu School
Kung Fu Show
Shaolin Monks

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang April 29th 2006

Not long left now and I am currently in Luoyang visiting the Shaolin monks. I left Chengdu on an overnight sleeper train to Xi'an which went smoothly and actually got a good nights sleep by tying a zip top around my head covering my face. It was good to arrive in Xi'an (a city with around 8million people known for its shopping). The guesthouse was literally opposite the Bell Tower, the centre point of the walled city and the first day was spent exploring the muslim quarter with its antique shops, tea houses (and shops). The following day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors and museum....something you have see when in China but was a little disappointed. From Xi'an to Luoyang was a 6hr train....very pleasantly surprised by the trains out here so far. ... read more

Asia » China » Henan » Luoyang February 11th 2006

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 ... read more
Ancestor worshipping cave from afar
Longmen Caves
The beheaded statues were quite eerie




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