Today was the Longmen, "Dragon's Gate," grottos which were built around 500/600 AD. They actually got the idea of carved grottos from the Indians, notably the Ajunta and Ellora caves which were carved around 300 BC. After my cave binge in India earlier this year, 2024 is certainly my 'year of the cave'.
It rained most of the day which was our first wet episode. Chinese tourists don single-use plastics when it's wet. Each tourist attraction has a host of sellers plying tourists with umbrellas, plastic rain coats and shoe covers for rainy days. The western-looking tourists were easily spottable with their gortex jackets ;-).
The west side of the River Yi has the best caves, hewn all over the rock face. There are over 2000.
Many of the caves are empty. They were probably adorned at one stage but the passage of time - erosion, theft and vandalism - emptied them. It’s particularly noticeable that many of the sculptures are missing their heads/faces. The entrance sign said excessive erosion caused this, but I think not.
There were certainly some really impressive caves. This is the cave of 1000 Buddhas - the left and right sides walls were adorned with tiny Buddhas.
The piece de resistance is the Fengxiansi Cave, also known as Grand Losana Buddha Niche. The Buddha is 17.1 m high, and the sign informed us that the ear was 1.9 m long which is a fun fact. It is surrounded by four statues on each side and gives the impression of "elegance, solemnity, quietness etc" - quietness was certainly off the menu today due to the crowds, but it was still impressive.
JC has far more interest in these than I - I am happy to view, take photos and inspect for 10/15 minutes. JC needs a good half an hour and then a repeat visit with a different camera lens on. We were one of the few of the 100s of tourists taking photos of the carvings alone. Most were taking photos of their friends posing this way and that in front of the carved backdrop, plus the women in traditional Chinese garb having photoshoots. People watching is a hobby in its own right. Anyway, back to the carvings...
No dabbling allowed.
I was pleased to spot some survey kit. On the left it looks like a radar to measure the water level, and the instruments on the harness are current meters.
We crossed the river and walked up to the east caves. They were certainly less impressive than their westerly neighbour but pretty empty which was a bonus.
This is the grotto of the 1000 hands and 1000 eyes. Not sure I can see the eyes, but hands there are aplenty.
We strolled by the River Yi. I fancied a coffee and espied a kiosk advertising americanos. We ordered two. “Do you want sugar?” the vendor typed into his phone which translated it into English for us. We shook our heads. He typed back into his phone “the coffee tastes a bit odd. Sugar is best” so we followed his advice and had sugar. We watched as he put a dollop of syrup into a mug, a sachet of coffee syrup and cold water. Doh - we’d forgotten to specify hot! Fortunately he did us another two so we walked away with hot, syrupy coffee-esque liquid. It tasted pretty foul (the vendor was right!) but at least it was warm fluid and I managed most of it.
Next up was Xiangshansi temple. It was apparently 16th century but it’s been so touched up it was hard to tell where the original bits are.
Most temples have a bell and a drum tower - bell tower shown above on the left. This was no exception but also had beautiful views across the river despite the haze/smog.
The last section of our ticket price was a visit of White Park which houses the tomb of the 9th Century poet Bai Juyi. This sign, on a flight of steps, didn't make sense until I checked it in my app and it also translated as 'no sliding' which seemed more like it.
In the evening we headed downtown Luoyang. We again managed street food although my ‘gluten free veggie’ offering was just rice noodles in broth with some sliced spring onions on top. Not my most filling meal. JC fared better with beef noodles.
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