Blogs from Henan, China, Asia - page 13

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

Some how this one slipped by me. I thought I had documented our trip to see Charles and Mary and just needed to add photos, but I find no entry. This was an amazing trip, so I can't leave it out! Charles was one of my students in 2004. He chose the adjective of Charming and ever since has been Charming Charles. He definitely lives up to his name! His wife, Mary, joined us part way thru the class and was a delightful addition. She is a beautiful women and very gracious. We became good friends. In 2006 Charles, Mary and their daughter, Lucy came to Xinyang from their home to visit me. They treated me to a wonderful meal and a good time. This year, 2008, I told Charles it was my turn to visit ... read more

Shaolin temple is located in songshan mountain ,zheng Zhou city,Henan province.It is a amazing place for the people all over the world. It is also famous for the shaolin kungfu and zen buddhism. Leave zhengzhou railway station ,you can take the city bus from zhengzhou to deng feng where is the shaolin temple located.it will take you one hour to there.about the hotel ,do not worry ,it is also cheap ,you can find one hotel less than 200RMB.of course ,if you have a friend there ,it must be very usefull. Tour shaolin temple ,you need to visit three different places.one is shaolin temple,another is shaolin kungfu shao,the third is pagoda forest. Shao lin temple has a history for about more than 1500years old ,there were many famous person had visited the shaolin temple.for example ,the ... read more

Last night I spent a pretty sleepless night - strange bed (we are now moved into my friend Yarna's apartment in Xinyang), pretty bad thunderstorm, and lots of worries about whether today's monetary transaction would go thru - of course it didn't! I will spare you the details and just give the essentials. Two weeks ago Megan and I went to immigration to see about an extension on our visa. By our figures we would be in China 32 days and our visa is only good for 30. The nice gentleman, who spoke fairly good English, assured us "July 7th to August 7th - enough." I was not sure, but I felt I had asked enough if he was sure and didn't want to anger him. We decided it would be wise to go back to ... read more

Sadly the video that was suppose to be on here did not download. I will have to see if one of my students will send it to me - it came of someone else's camera. Last week we took a field trip to a park . . . I will tell you more soon.... read more