Luoyang and the Longmen Grottoes

After being on the train all afternoon and evening, we finally made it from Qingdao to Luoyang. It was about 10 or 11pm when we made it to our hostel. We were pretty hungry and James had already scouted out a street food market, so we headed there for a late night meal. 

This place had some of the cheapest food I've seen in China! That's 8 skewers for about $.15.... Granted they were pretty small.

There was also a stand which had a trash can filled with skewer sticks. It kind of looked like a piece of modern art. 

That night we actually stayed up pretty late chatting with the two other people in our hostel room. One was a woman from the UK, who has just finished up a job teaching in Kuwait for a couple of years. The other guy was from Germany. It seemed like a surprisingly international room for a small hostel in the middle of nowhere in China - probably one of the most Chinese places I've ever been.

The next morning, Louisa and I got up really early to see the Longmen Grottoes before our train that afternoon. James went the day before, which is when we all planned to go before we missed our train. 

The Longmen Grottoes were started around the year 500AD and were finished about 1000AD. The site consists of about 1,400 caves which were carved out on a face along a river. You can't go in the caves, but you can see them pretty well. They are in pretty good condition, considering how old they are. 

Compared to other sites I've visited, there was little damage from humans. When traditionally Buddhist regions converted to Islam, any likenesses were defaced, as it is not allowed in Islam. Either this region never converted or this site was left unharmed. 

We spent most of the visit running away from tourist groups. Luckily we got there early and managed to beat most of the groups. I wished I could have stayed all day looking at the details of the carvings, which are so intricate. 

Details in clothing and faces are still visible. Even some of the original paint is still in tact!

In the end, I'm glad we were able to go even after having our time in Luoyang shortened so much. It is well worth a visit and Luoyang is such a good example of a normal Chinese town. It was really authentic and not westernized at all (except for the presence of KFC, which is inescapable in China). That said, it was a really strange place. I wouldn't recommend staying for more than a day or two. It would also be a little harder to get around if you don't speak Chinese. 

After the grottoes, we walked around near our hostel. We found ancient streets where the buildings were falling apart and everything was covered in dust and dirt. 

But some of the traditional architecture was there and it was really cool. 

We found a strange opera costume store, which was fun to look around in.

And this truck we found seemed to perfectly encapsulate Luoyang - dirty, old, in need of repair, and full of character.

Maybe I should take back what I said about westernization?

After our exploration, we headed back to the train station. After just under 24 hours in Luoyang, we were headed to Huashan!