We were meant to take the train from Zheng Zhou to Luo Yang next but Dad had the bright idea of joining a one-day tour from Zheng Zhou to Luo Yang instead. That way, we avoided the hassle of having to go to the train station to get tickets and wrestle the crowds with our suitcases.
洛陽 Luo Yang is one of the four great ancient capitals of China. There are only three famous tourist attractions in Luo Yang - a temple which we didn't bother going to, Shaolin Monastery and Longmen Grottoes.
First up for the day, we visited 少林寺 Shaolin Monastery.
I noted with interest that all the stone carvings on the steps were of monks heheh.
Dunno if this was meant to be the statue of some famous monk or not.
Surrounding areas were very hilly.
Dad obliging me once again. After I took this shot, lots of other copy cats followed dad's pose. Tsk tsk tsk.
Shaolin Monastery is situated in a HUGE area and is very very commercialised. The temple itself was a twenty minutes walk from the entrance. Tourists have the option of legging it in the 35 degrees heat or paying RMB10 to take a bus there. Guess which option we chose?
First stop off the bus - Pagoda Forest. The Shaolin Monastery and Pagoda Forest were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.
The Pagoda Forest refers to the 228 stone or brick pagodas built from 791 AD. The levels, or storeys, on the pagodas must be odd numbers (from 1 to 7) and are based on the achievements of the Buddhist masters they were built for. The era the pagodas were built in affects the shape (round or square) and the number of sides (4 or 6). The pagoda forest in Shaolin stands at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain and is one of the largest pagoda forests in China. Besides the pagoda forest there are many invaluable tomb pagodas scattered around the Shaolin Temple.
This was the last pagoda built before the place was listed as a world heritage site (so no more changes can be made) and there are modern things like computer and cars etched on the pagoda so that the buddhist master for whom the pagoda was built for, can enjoy these worldly goods in Heaven. Haha. Shouldn't he be busy chanting and praying, not surfing the heavenly net/??/?
After that, it was a short walk to the monastery. I look so FAT here, stupid tee shirt has been burnt.
Check out ang moh monk.
Right at the back of the front doors, there were four gynormous statues - 四大天王.
Areas behind the temple.
This is the office of the 方丈 First Abbott. He is the one who had the bright idea of commercialising Shaolin Monastery and turning it into the golden goose.
It was quite boring actually. We didn't get to see any demonstrations of kungfu by cute little monks. Our useless tour guide was more interested in rushing us through so that the real tour could start, ie taking us to stupid souvenir shops so that she could earn some commission from our purchases. She said - if you are lucky, you will see it but if not, you also don't have to be disappointed. Errrr Shaolin Monastery = kungfu, lady???????????
Rows of buses ready to take tourists around. But on the way back, we couldn't find any buses to take us back to the entrance. Bloody tourguide wanted to hurry us around so she made us start walking instead of waiting a few minutes for the next batch of buses to come around. The parents were NOT amused. But we made it.... it was very hot and a very unhappy 20 minute walk. No tips for you, lady.
Lunch was at a typical restaurant around the place - restaurant name translated to something like Farm Girl Home Cooking. I didn't have much expectations by then.
Food ordering was quite interesting - you go right into the kitchen and point to the ingredients you want and tell the chef what you want cooked.
Right before the food came, I had to use their bathroom. You would think this would put me off the food. You would be wrong.
This was the BEST meal I had in China haha... probably because we kept to very simple dishes.
Tomato stir fried egg.... yum.
Stir fried veges.
Can't remember what this was now but it was nice. Kinda like white bait but I think it was some sort of mushroom type veges.
Second tourist attraction for the day - 龍門石窟 Longmen Grottoes.
Please do not get confused and thought there will be lots of men with long bodies hanging around heheh. It's a direct pinyin translation of the chinese name which means Dragon's Gate. So really, it's Dragon's Gate Grottoes. In 2000, the site was inscribed as part of UNESCO World Heritage List.
Temple on top of a hill opposite the grottoes. Included in the entrance ticket too but Mum refused to climb up to have a look around at a stupid temple heheh.
The Longmen Grottoes or Caves are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. There are as many as 100,000 statues within the 1,400 caves, ranging from 25 mm to 17 m in height. Situated in a scenic natural environment, the caves were dug from a 1 kilometre stretch of cliff running along both banks of the river. The plethora of caves, sculptures and pagodas in Longmen Grottoes depict a definite "progression in style" with the early caves being simple and well shaped with carvings of statues of Buddha and religious people. The change of style is more distinct in the Tang Dynastic periods which are more complex and incorporate women and court figures as well.
These were rows of tiny buddha carvings... my camera was playing up and refused to focus properly.
It was amazing, much like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, just for the sheer labour it took and the how amazing ancient people were despite limited technology. Every single spot and hole in the cliffs all along the way had either carvings or inscriptions. It was mind-boggling.
Overexposed!
The largest statues were high up after a very steep set of stairs. The parents took a break and had an ice cream while I legged it up there to take some photos. Check out the size of the humans compared to the statues. They were very majestic.
Can you spot the parents?
This was how far we walked. If it was up to Mum, we would have taken a electrical cart hehe but there was none for hire until after the grottoes...
So amazing.
LuoYang is famous for its peonies and it was meant to be Peonies Festival so our last stop for the day was the Peonies Park. But because of the heavy rain a few days ago, most peonies have died or dropped off. This was the only one worth photographing.
One of the groups in our day tour was a grandparents from Urumuqi, Xingjiang. The kid was quite funny and talkative so Mum took a shine to him. He showed off his english language skills - he could say doctor and policeman haha and let's go!!!!! Mum gave him an angpow of RMB10 just before we left and the grandparents chatted to us for a long time, saying we must visit them if we ever visit Urumuqi and gave us one of their biscuits to try. The grandma said i look like i am in my twenties. She was right... heheh.
We jumped into another tour bus that was headed for LuoYang as our original bus had to go back to ZhengZhou. Our bus driver became very friendly towards the end as well and became very chatty and helped arrange for our transportation to the hotel. Twas very bizarre. He said he wants to move to Canada and was learning english. The kid said his english name is John and the driver said he always has an english name, Geoff. I was waiting for someone to pipe up and say their name is Olly or Damon. Heheheh.
Our hotel in LuoYang was big but had a lot of unnecessary stuff in the room. E.g. weird orbs of decorations, bed stand thing to put cups of tea on I suppose. Also, the toilet in my room was blocked and remained blocked after three attempts by the hotel staff to fix it! Luckily, Dad's room was next door so I could go there to use the facilities. Air-conditioning was not turned on yet because the weather was not hot enough to warrant it yet, apparently. We were not happy!
Camera was not behaving again.
The giant orb thing as mentioned before...
We had the morning to explore LuoYang city before our train ride to Xi'an so we had breakfast in town. The breakfast at the hotel was really really bad - no drinks or bread, only about a handful of chinese dishes to choose from. Mum got so sick soya milk and fried doughsticks..
Next up, Xi'an.
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