Adventures in China

Luoyang was an ancient capital for a long period of time. Unfortunately, the city has been destroyed a number of times and there is relatively little to see in the area, now. There are still a number of really neat things to see, so if you're in the area to see Longmen Grottos, the peonies, or Shaolin Temple, it may be worth stopping for an extra day or two to poke around.

The only sign that the city is ancient is occasionally running into something cool in the old city section of town. This used to be the city wall of Luoyang, this was the East Gate. It was built around 600AD.

Luoyang used to be on the silk road and still has a small Muslim minority in the city. Most of the Muslims live in old city. These old Muslim women (you can tell by their hats) are sitting out watching people pass by.

The vast majority of old city looks like this; small, narrow, and bumpy. Unfortunately, the houses are not particularly distinctive.

This is the entrance to the Luoyang folk art museum. It is buried in old city, so the roads are narrow and it is difficult to get to. But I think they are building a nice new road to it, now. The building used to be a marketplace.

This is the view from the stage over the main entrance. It would be a place where Chinese opera could be performed. The building in the middle of the square is a temple with a number of Buddha and local deities in it. The surrounding buildings used to be shops but now house exhibits.

The exhibits are not impressive when compared to museums in Xi'an or Beijing, but the exhibits contain material not found in those other museums. There are paper cuttings, like this one, examples of traditional clothing, and a model depicting a traditional Chinese wedding.

This is the Luoyang History Museum. It is very easy to get to, since it is in the middle of downtown, but is probably not worth visiting unless you are in Luoyang for a long time. There is some interesting sculpture, but a number of the "artifacts" are obviously fakes.

There is also a botanical garden (pictured here) and a park with a zoo in Luoyang. The botanical garden doesn't have many plants, and is generally run down, but many older people come to the park to exercise or sing. The park with the zoo, Wang Chung Park, is really depressing and few local people visit it. The peony festival and chrysanthemum festivals are held there, though.

A museum that does not appear to be very good but is actually excellent is the Luoyang Ancient Tombs Museum, just 4km out of town. The upstairs exhibits are not particularly interesting, but the exhibits underground are neat. They took artifacts from excavated tombs in the area and reconstructed the tombs in the museum. The effect is both creepy and informative.

Another picture outside the tomb museum.

Guanlin temple is very close to downtown Luoyang. It manages to maintain a reverent atmosphere and there are very few people who visit. There are a few people who come to pray because Guan Yu's head is buried here (a famous general from the 3 states warring period). His body is buried in another province. There are 170 stone lions and a number of art sellers, who sell very nice work.

This is me lifting a replica of Guan Yu's weapon. It's heavy. Notice the Chinese people staring at me like I'm crazy.

It was probably rude of me to take a picture inside one of the halls, but this is a pretty typical example of what is presented in temples. The middle figure is about 20 feet tall and I am standing over a prayer cushion.