In Which Luoyang Proves Difficult to Escape

Alright, next stop, Luoyang! Ancient Buddhist caves! Adventure! Train tickets of questionable origin!

Our stay in Louyang, however breif, was eventful. The main attraction was the Longmen grottoes, Buddhist caves that date back thousands of years. This was the highlight of my trip so far, I think. The grottoes consisted of a number of statues of Buddha, from the thousands upon thousands of tiny ones on the walls to the gigantic one that seems to be the main attraction of the site. The whole thing was beautiful, especially the flames surrounding the statues as a backdrop. And of course the maybe five story tall buddha durrounded by six other statues of equal size, all guards or disciples or Boddhisvattas, which are people who have postponed becoming a Buddha to help others. The whole thing proved to me that I ought to know more about Buddhism, because it really is an interesting religion. There was also a temple across the river whose name currently escapes me. It was up fairly high in the mountains, as in the stairs were difficult to get up. But the view was worth it. Unfortunately I was up there with a full memory card on my camera and no spares. I also did not realize that there is a button on the camera that lets you delete individual pictures. This is an insult to my nerdiness and a testament to my obliviousness. Anyway, After going through the grottoes, I was feeling very zen and just took comfort in knowing that there is beauty in transience, and that the fact that I couldn't keep the view might have actually made it better. I was also the only one with the energy to climb up to the temple, which made me feel pretty awesome, and also reinforced the transience thing because there was no one to take pictures for me with their cameras. I think that a great time was had by all, in spite of the ridiculous heat.

The next day we went to White Horse Temple, which is apparently the first Buddhist templein China. That was pretty neat, but I'm kind of on temple overload right now. I think that the first few are fascinating because they're new, but then it becomes like Catholic churches are to me, essentially the same with some small variations, except for the really big things. Such as the giant jade Buddha that was at White Horse temple. That was fairly impressive. Still, unless there's a specific god it's devoted to that interests me, the temples tend to blur without major differences. The temple that we didn't get a chance to go to is Guanlin temple, devoted to Guan Yu, who is basically a god of valor and honor respected by Confuscianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. He is an actual historical person who was characterized in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a famous Chinese historical novel that I decided I should read while I'm over here. I'm about halfway right now, and ought to finish it in the course of my travels. Anyway, Guan Yu is a pretty cool guy, and hopefully some day I'll see that temple of his.

We also saw the Luoyang ancient tomb museum. That was not as cool as it seems like it should be. It seems like Chinese museums focus more on technical details, instead of historical context. That makes for a less interesting museum, especially coupled with the fact that the more interesting details, such as the fact that one chamber has some unique acoustic properties, have to be pointed out by some overentusiastic Chinese man. It wasn't bad, just... underwhelming.

The interesting part of this city was getting out. We tried to get tickets as soon as we got in, but that wasn't happening. You see, all of the students are apparently returning home after vacation. This does not leave many train seats open. So few, in fact, that we got our tickets from a guy at our hotel. This guy seemed to be somewhat affiliated with the train station in a sort of underground way. Even he couldn't get us anything better than hard seat section overnight to Beijing, our next city. That ride was quite unpleasant. I can't sleep sitting up very well, and I was separated from the resto f the people and in the center seat, so there was nothing and no one to lean on. Not particularly fun. Also, the train was very crowded. You see, there was a step further down from our seats. That step down is not having a seat, but rather standing in the aisle. The aisles were nearly filled. It was bad, but that's how people travel in China.