Grab Your Passport and My Hand

I hope you're all doing well. Happy beginning of December! For me it's very strange to be in a place where there is absolutely no Christmas spirit whatsoever. I just really miss the Christmas market and Glühwein and advent calendars. Light some candles for me :)

So anyway, what I really want to talk about in this post is the amazing weekend I've had. Me and six other students of my university (2 Italians, 1 Austrian, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Korean, 1 Chinese and me) took a little trip to Luoyang 洛阳 in Henan, the province that lies to the East of Shaanxi. The train there only takes 5 hours and 50 Yuan, about 6 Euros. Why Luoyang? For one thing, it's one of the four ancient capitals of China (Beijing, Nanjing, Chang'an, Luoyang; I've now almost been to all of them, only missing Beijing), it was the capital during the Eastern Zhou (770-249BC), the Han (25-220BC, not the dates of the dynasty, Luoyang was the capital during these years) and the Northern Wei (moved their capital there in 493BC). Also Wu Zetian (Tang dynasty, reg. 690-705), the only woman to ever rule China as emperor without a regent, made Luoyang her capital. A fascinating historical figure, she was ruthless in her pursuit for power, exiling her own sons to eliminate competition. Once she was emperor, the Chinese empire expanded to include parts of Central Asia and the Northern Korean peninsula. Also she increased support for Buddhism and literature within the empire. A place filled with this much history has to be visited.

We took a train on Friday after classes, had a nice trainride playing Doppelkopf and arrived in Luoyang at 7 o'clock. Also there was first class entertainment in hard-seater class: a guy tried to sell towels. And he was very enthusiastic about them. Made the whole carriage count down while he was drying his hair. The first evening was spent finding our hostel and then having dinner in the town centre. The hostel was really nice and full of cats *_* there was a little kitten that was just the cutest ball of joy.

Cutiepie.

On Saturday it was time to visit the other reason that we had for coming to Luoyang: the Shaolin temple. Sound familiar? Best known as the place where Shaolin-Kungfu was invented. Founded in 495 during the Northern Wei dynasty, it's today probably the most well-known Buddhist temple of China. So we took a bus from Luoyang to Dengfeng, a small town with a lot of Kungfu schools and arrived at the temple after two hours. The first thing that greeted us there was cold. And fog. Maybe not ideal circumstances for sight-seeing but it actually made for an amazing atmosphere. Due to the weather there were fewer people there than usual and often it felt like we were alone on the street.

Inside the temple.

The training ground.

Empty streets.

It does have something, doesn't it?

Of course we watched a performance by monks/students, we weren't quite sure on that front. It was very impressive either way. The way they have control over their own bodies just baffles me.

After the performance we wandered around a little and found a sign pointing to something called the "Dharma cave". We decided to go check it out and started walking down a path. Little did we know that this cave was actually about 3km away and up on a mountain. So unknowingly we had signed up for a little hike that would take up the rest of the day. These things happen. It was wonderful by the way, no regrets. We met some other people hiking up the same path (they obviously knew where they were going) who told us how 好厉害, awesome we were to climb up this hill. The nature around us was breathtaking, even with the fog all around. And when we finally got to the cave, we were in for another surprise. Unknowingly we had hiked to the place where according to legend Zen-Buddhism was invented by Bodhi Dharma, who is said to have sat in this cave for 9 years in meditation. Amazing how these things happen :) After marvelling at the beauty of the landscape and life in general we started our descent. We got to the main tourist area just as darkness fell. A great end to our day. The only problem was that because we had extended our stay at the temple for so long, we missed the last bus back to Luoyang. Fortunately it's very easy to find so-called 黑车, black cars, which are basically unlicensed taxis. So we were driven back to our hostel in a very nice car by a guy who was making some money on the side this way. Time for more pictures!

We went towards that small temple.

And looking back.

Like a painting.

On Sunday we didn't have to travel quite as far to get to our destination. We visited the Longmen grottoes, much like the Maijishan grottoes in Tianshui they are also Buddhist statues carved into stone. They look completely different from those though. A lot of the caves were carved during the Tang dynasty and especially during the reign of Wu Zetian. It's an absolutely beautiful place.

Buddhas in all sizes.

Tiny Buddhas.

Big Buddhas from afar.

Big Buddhas up close.

After we visited the caves we still had enough time to visit Xiangshan temple, where emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty came to appreciate the beautiful scenery of Longmen. Also Chiang Kai-shek had a villa here where he met with representatives of the CCP. It seems like Chiang Kai-shek chose the prettiest places to live and plot.

Emperor Qianlong wrote this poem while he was at the temple.

Our last stop was the grave of Bai Juyi, a poet who lived during the Tang dynasty and left behind over 2800 poems. He spent the last years of his life at Xiangshan temple in the company of some of the greatest literary minds of the time. His grave is now located in a beautiful park nearby. Here is one of his poems about peonies, a flower that grows everywhere in Luoyang (obviously not while we were there).

惆怅阶前红牡丹，

晚来唯有两枝残。

明朝风起应吹尽，

夜惜衰红把火看。

I‘m saddened by the peonies before the steps, so red,
As evening came I found that only two remained.
Once morning's winds have blown, they surely won't survive.
At night I gaze by lamplight, to cherish the fading red.

Mural of Bai Juyi in Xiangshan temple.

The view from his grave.

When we were done visiting the grave, it was time for us to say goodbye to Luoyang. We had dinner in one of the worst Sichuan restaurants I've ever been to (never ask me about it) and then got on our train. Which was delayed for two hours. Then we had quite a nice trainride back to Xi'an, where we were the attraction of the carriage. There was a little girl who really wanted to talk to us but was kind of afraid. So cute, she always asked something, listened to the answer and then ran away again. I love riding trains in China.

We got back to our dorm at 1:30 at night, had to wake up the very disgruntled night watch and then finally fell into bed. It was an amazing trip, thanks to everyone who came!

Chinese Word of the Day: 善哉 shanzai, often said by Buddhist monks. It basically means good, as far as I understand. There was a song playing at Shaolin temple which contained this word a lot. It made me very happy because every time they sang it, it sounded like 香菜 xiangcai, cilantro to me. I was laughing about it all day.