The train from Beijing to Zhengzhou went very quickly since the majority of it was during the night hours. And at last we arrived in Zhengzhou of Henan province in the late morning and met one of my room-mate’s Chinese classmates from Australia. She took us to this very fancy hotel, close to the station for a breakfast buffet; an all we could eat feast of fresh vegetables, fruits, buns, noodles, congee and coffee, much appreciated after a night on a train.
After my room-mate and his friend caught up on each other’s lives we took the bus from Zhengzhou to Luoyang where I had booked the hotel from my China travel agency for the night.
I arrived at Luoyang and decided to take a cab to the hotel since we could not find the bus number that the staff recommended to take from the station. The cab driver overcharged us (as usual).
The hotel staff were extremely friendly and welcoming, and the room we booked was amazing and it was only 100 Yuan per person a night!
Since we had arrived at the hotel in the afternoon we thought there would not be enough time to visit Shaolin as the journey. Instead we decided to head for the Longmen Grotto’s; Luoyang’s premier tourist attraction and a designated world heritage site. Getting there was easy, a direct bus right outside of the hostel to the Grottoes. The caves were definitely worth the 120Yuan entry fee.
Hundreds of Buddhist statues carved out of the rock, ranging in size from the microscopic to the gargantuan.
At first we were breath-taken by the scale of this devotion to the Buddha and then we could not believe that such a feat could have be accomplished hundreds of years ago by simple monks, although there must have been some deaths during the construction since the mountain face was quite steep.
Unfortunately as a result of the Cultural Revolution most of the Buddhas were without heads or hands, except for the largest statues.
This site proves both the immense capability and ingenuity of Chinese civilization throughout the ages and also their capacity for destruction and suppression at the hands of tyrannical leaders such as the late Chairman Mao.
The rest of the site is quite magical once we escaped the hordes of tourists and the sound
I love kung fu!!! speakers playing ‘classical Chinese melodies’. We crossed the river and climbed to a temple, which provided superb views of the opposite mountain face carved by the Buddhist devotees.
Spiritual moment over, we headed back towards the hotel and got off the bus a few stops early to check out the night market. This is the first time I travel China and very interested in the night market here too.
At this point, apart from a Chinese take on the Magnum ice cream we had not eaten since breakfast so we headed straight for the food. Sitting down at an open-air, roadside food stall we each ate an amazing bowl of noodles, my Dan Dan Mian was the best I have ever tasted and it only cost 5 yuan. Naturally we washed our noodles down with 2 Yuan large bottles of local beer. After the beer we were intrigued whether the waitress who served us was wearing anything under the red-dress we was wearing. Before heading back to the hotel to watch TV5 Quebec News I grabbed a few more Chinese snacks from the night market including kebabs, Chinese sweet Pizza bread, some fruit and Coconut juice. And have a nice sleep! What a wonderful day!
After my room-mate and his friend caught up on each other’s lives we took the bus from Zhengzhou to Luoyang where I had booked the hotel from my China travel agency for the night.
I arrived at Luoyang and decided to take a cab to the hotel since we could not find the bus number that the staff recommended to take from the station. The cab driver overcharged us (as usual).
The hotel staff were extremely friendly and welcoming, and the room we booked was amazing and it was only 100 Yuan per person a night!
Since we had arrived at the hotel in the afternoon we thought there would not be enough time to visit Shaolin as the journey. Instead we decided to head for the Longmen Grotto’s; Luoyang’s premier tourist attraction and a designated world heritage site. Getting there was easy, a direct bus right outside of the hostel to the Grottoes. The caves were definitely worth the 120Yuan entry fee.
Hundreds of Buddhist statues carved out of the rock, ranging in size from the microscopic to the gargantuan.
At first we were breath-taken by the scale of this devotion to the Buddha and then we could not believe that such a feat could have be accomplished hundreds of years ago by simple monks, although there must have been some deaths during the construction since the mountain face was quite steep.
Unfortunately as a result of the Cultural Revolution most of the Buddhas were without heads or hands, except for the largest statues.
This site proves both the immense capability and ingenuity of Chinese civilization throughout the ages and also their capacity for destruction and suppression at the hands of tyrannical leaders such as the late Chairman Mao.
The rest of the site is quite magical once we escaped the hordes of tourists and the sound
I love kung fu!!! speakers playing ‘classical Chinese melodies’. We crossed the river and climbed to a temple, which provided superb views of the opposite mountain face carved by the Buddhist devotees.
Spiritual moment over, we headed back towards the hotel and got off the bus a few stops early to check out the night market. This is the first time I travel China and very interested in the night market here too.
At this point, apart from a Chinese take on the Magnum ice cream we had not eaten since breakfast so we headed straight for the food. Sitting down at an open-air, roadside food stall we each ate an amazing bowl of noodles, my Dan Dan Mian was the best I have ever tasted and it only cost 5 yuan. Naturally we washed our noodles down with 2 Yuan large bottles of local beer. After the beer we were intrigued whether the waitress who served us was wearing anything under the red-dress we was wearing. Before heading back to the hotel to watch TV5 Quebec News I grabbed a few more Chinese snacks from the night market including kebabs, Chinese sweet Pizza bread, some fruit and Coconut juice. And have a nice sleep! What a wonderful day!
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