Luoyang

Luoyang is of significant historical importance, having been the capital of China during many dynasties, and as a centre of Confucian culture and Buddhism in China. Consequently, there is quite a bit of information about it available on the internet. Here are a few links to some of that:

Ancient History Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia Brittanica

For up to date tourist information, just Google “Luoyang”.

I went there to visit an English friend, Gerald, who worked as a teacher in a school outside of the city and had just found a new position at the University inside the city. At the time, it was all very different from Qinhuangdao – much more run down and Third World – and that was when I realised how lucky I had been to get the job I had in what by comparison was the Monaco of mainland China.

I travelled to Luoyang in July 2009 by train from Xi’an – a route with many departures on various types of train, now including a high-speed service introduced in 2017, which has reduced the time required from about five and a half hours to one and a half hours. It had simply been too hot for me in Xi’an – every day above 40 Centigrade – so I arrived a few days earlier than originally planned. It was pretty hot in Luoyang too, but not quite so stifling. It was so hot at night that many locals – not having air-conditioning – would sleep on the roof of their building. Fortunately, Gerald did have air-co, though sadly only in his bedroom, so it didn’t help me much in the living-room.

The city was not very interesting – just a big village, really – though it did have a pretty good line in Chinglish, but Gerald had a motorcycle and a licence obtained from a local policeman for a relatively minor financial consideration, so we were able to travel around the countryside with wind-cooling.

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The only tourist site I visited near Luoyang was Longmen grottoes. Again, there is a lot of information about this World Heritage site available online, since it is one of China’s most important cultural sites, so I won’t even try to summarise here, except to say that it really very impressive close up.

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