Our train ride up to Luoyang wasn't nearly as exciting as the one to Kaifeng unfortunately - nor were the seats as comfortable (same kind of train, but the seats were harder for some odd reason). That was ok though considering the train to Luoyang only took about 2-3 hours (I forget exactly how long). When we arrived, we were slightly disappointed by the city itself. Or at least I was. Kaifeng had been kind of charming as a city - Luoyang was bigger, more industrialized, dirtier and more polluted.
After dropping our bags off at the Cygnus International Hotel (not nearly as nice as the New Century Kaifeng - admittedly, the Kaifeng hotel had spoiled us a bit...haha) we went off in search of food with the intention of going to see the peonies after we ate.
You see, on the train, we'd been informed that we had decided to come to Luoyang at an optimal time - the Peony Festival, which is apparently one of the things Luoyang is known for, had started a few days ago. We were told we should go to one of the public parks and see them in full bloom. That we wouldn't regret it!
So, food...we walked around for a bit looking for a restaurant. But we didn't find one until we had walked all the way to the public park. It was a pretty nice restaurant, decently priced and with a good amount of people in it. We ordered a few plates of vegetables and a dish of noodles with some peanut thing in it - one of Luoyang's specialties. Food was good in general, bathroom was clean (cleanest one we'd seen in a while outside of the hotels), and the day was nice.
We wandered over to the public park where we joined a really long line of people thinking that we might have to get a ticket to go into the park or the festival or something. We'd been standing in line for about 20 minutes complaining about how it seemed stupid that we should pay for a ticket for a public park when a lady pointed out that the line was for tickets for a completely different thing.
Boy did WE feel dumb.
We laughed it off as we exited the line and went into the park. The peonies were beautiful. Not quite in full bloom yet (still being protected by big plastic tents over the flowerbeds) but we were still able to see enough to keep us satisfied. We took a few pictures of the flowers, of the lovely Qing-style ting near the flowerbeds, and then sat down and watched all the Chinese parents walking about with their toddlers showing them the flowerbeds or just strolling through the park. Some of them were placing the toddlers in the middle of the flowerbeds to take pictures of their little treasures with the peonies. Although an admittedly cute idea, NW and I commiserated about how that was going to ruin the flower beds and was in direct violation of the very clear, big signs posted next to every bed that screamed "DO NOT GO INTO THE FLOWERBEDS" to the observing passerby.
The parents though, seemed to be enjoying the day out with their one child. The one child policy...NW and I discussed it for a bit there. She pointed out that here, in China, Children seem to be extremely precious - they are everywhere of course, but in China there is a certain - I don't know how to really say this - different protectiveness, different attention to their one child. It is the one chance they get - their one treasure. There is a certain sadness that overwhelmed me when I heard that. Imagine growing up with no brothers and sisters because the government said you can't...I mean, I can see why the One Child Policy is necessary and how it has worked. But this is an outsider's perspective - someone who will probably never have to adhere to the One Child Policy or something similar. I can, if I want to, have twenty children (not that I would - that just seems socially irresponsible) or none at all. But if I could only have one child, I think that they would be my whole world too...
This is why I find China so interesting - so full of nuanced complexities that reveal themselves as you pull back the layers. It is not this one monolithic culture - as their image to the world would have us believe - but a living, thriving, dynamic, evolving country that sees the world in ways that are so radically different but just as efficient as our own. I am always surprised when I learn more about it because it keeps unveiling different faces of itself and keeps me intrigued. The only other thing that does that for me is film....funny how things have a way of working out...I never really considered studying Chinese Language and culture until I just took Elementary Chinese on little more than a whim my first year at Vassar. Haha. More things to validate my Vassar experience as phenomenally unique, eye-opening, and world-changing.
Anyways...
After getting our fill of peonies and babies (God our hormones got the best of us that day, didn't they???) we decided that the caffeine levels in our bloodstream were running dangerously low and that we should go find a cup of coffee for some down time. We had seen a Dio Coffee somewhere as we were walking towards the park so we resolved to go back and find it.
About an hour and a half later, it was 6:30 and we still had not hit it...and NW's museum contact called, offering to take us to dinner. We accepted and got on a cab to go to the hotel to be picked up. Much to our dismay, the coffee place had been a block away from where we had gotten the cab and watched the place roll by as we drove past it.
Ah...I should explain this first! One of the many reasons NW made for such a good trip buddy is that we are both Coffee Junkies. WE NEED OUR COFFEE IN THE MORNING. There aren't that many people out there who would really understand the fact that I need a cup of joe in the morning to function properly. Luckly, NW is the same way, so coffee-searching was usually our first activity in the morning. And sometimes in the afternoon...haha.
So we went to dinner with NW's museum contact at a really fancy place near the Luoyang Museum (which was opening the next day...an event we had both cordially been invited to). Our host ordered a bunch of lovely dishes. I think they were mostly Guangdong (Cantonese) cuisine, but a lot of it was very very good. We ate our fill, got to know the guy, and then went back to the hotel where we promptly fell asleep as soon as our heads touched the pillows.
The next day were up bright and early. We decided to just go over to the McDonald's in the mall across the street from the hotel and get a cup of crappy coffee...we weren't completely convinced that we would find a suitable alternative. First though, we ducked into the Carrefour to pick up some food for breakfast and water bottles to take to the Longmen Grottoes in the afternoon. After emerging from the supermarket with a sad-looking piece of date cake and a yogurt, we spotted a small coffeeplace named Pappa Roti's (we suspect it was a misspelling of Pavarotti). We decided to take a chance and have our coffee there. It could not be worse than McDonald's coffee. Much to our great delight, the coffee was pretty awesome and was Illy and made from an expresso machine!!! We bought a couple of buns that they had there too...those were awesome as well. We ate our breakfast sitting near a decorative fountain in the mall.
After that we ran back to the hotel as NW's contact picked us up to take us to the Luoyang Museum.
The museum itself was impressive. The building was interesting - an inverted pyramid-like structure and spacious and well-lit. The collection was super super impressive (took lots of pics of all the dings and Han mirrors) and they had a lovely calligraphy wing that they were still in the process of setting up. They also had a few pieces borrowed from the Palace Museum in Beijing for their Qing dynasty art wing. As NW noted, it was unusual and impressive that the Palace Museum had loaned a city museum like Luoyang some of their stuff. NW got interviewed on local TV at some point as I exchanged a few businesscards with the TV crew. Hehe. After the tour, NW's contact treated us to a simple (but delicious) lunch at the Museum staff cafeteria and then offered to drive us to the Longmen Grottoes. After a few protests about not wanting to inconvenience them and reassurances that we were not on their part, we accepted.
As we were driving to the caves, we drove past a beautiful Tang-dynasty gate. The museum guy told us it was one of the old city gates from imperial times. He then did a U-turn and went into the complex where the gate was.
Turns out the gate was a museum.
A museum they opened exclusively for us that day.
Wow.
I must say it is one of the more interesting museums I've been to. The Tang fascade we saw from the outside is actually a modern partial reconstruction and it houses the ruins of the old Song dynasty gate!!! We also got to see this pretty neat model of Luoyang back in the day when it was an imperial capital. I also learned that Wu Zitian (the only female empress in all of Chinese history and one of the most badass figures in history in general) ruled from Luoyang. Yay! History!
After the gate museum, NW's museum contact drove us to the Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟 - lóngmén shíkū). I think NW's account of what happened during that visit is a pretty good one and can be checked out here. All I can say about that is that the Longmen Grottoes are just..something else. NW put it in a particularly good way when we saw the huge 5-story Buddhas in one of the many many caves: "The feeling I get here is the same I get whenever I walk into a Jewish Synagogue, a Caltholic Church, an Islamic Mosque, or a Buddhist temple - that these people, the ones who made this, saw God and chose to manifest it this way". Quite an ethereal experience.
I think what she meant is, that it is hard to not look at these incredible works of art and not see God, not see the Ethereal, that force that is greater than all of us - not see that interconnectedness. It is just simply, breathtaking...awesome, in the purest sense of the word...The power of faith really is incredible...
Here are some pictures. But again, as NW aptly put it when going over some of our pix afterwards, although impressive to see through pictures, the pictures will never and can never really do justice to the feeling and the magnitude of actually being in the presence of these grottoes.
My suggestion to all of you is: if you ever make it to China, make the Longmen Grottoes one of the places to go see. It is well worth it...it is definitely one of the most impressing and amazing things I've seen in my entire life. And I am so so glad NW suggested I go with her to Henan to see them!
After hiking around the grottoes feeling amazed, we headed back to the hotel. NW's museum contact took us to dinner. He took us to the old part of Luoyang into this place that was just enough of a dive to be authentic, but not divey enough to be sketchy. We had the traditional Luoyang water banquet (basically a bunch of soups). The soups were really good but they also ordered Century Egg, which I tried, because you know, you should try everything at least once before deciding whether you like it or not.
Yeah.
I didn't like century egg. Texture is weird, flavor is weird...and it took 5 minutes to actually be able to pick it up with my chopsticks.
But I did like the cow's stomach soup! It was really delicious. I know that sounds weird...
After dinner, we said one last goodbye to our very very nice and gracious friend and went back to the hotel for some sleep.
This morning, we woke up, got coffee and buns at Pappa Roti's and jumped on the train to Zhengzhou where NW and I parted ways. NW was staying in Zhengzhou to visit the Henan Provincial museum there and I went to the airport to catch a plane to Hangzhou - my last stop in China before leaving for New York. So that's where I am now. On a plane. Again. The Indian man sitting next to me seems intrigued by what I'm writing. And food service is here.
Gotta go!
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