Henan

The past weekend was a long weekend in China, so I took the opportunity to do some traveling. I travelled with two other people, Martin and Jeff. Jeff is an overseas Chinese and speaks near-perfect Chinese, so getting around was no problem. We initially had wanted to go to Shanxi to see Pingyao and Datong, but we did not know that everyone in China also wants to travel on the long weekend. Because of this all of the sleeper trains to any destination in China were fully booked for the day we wanted to leave. So, instead of not going at all we decided to leave early on Friday morning and take an express train to Zhengzhou in Henan. While much farther than Pingyao, the train only took five hours, vs. the twelve that the Pingyao train would have required. China is gradually introducing bullet trains, and the Beijing - Zhengzhou route is quite fast as a result.

We got into Zhengzhou shortly before noon, and went to the market to get some 'xiaochi' (snacks) for lunch. I noticed immediately that it was hot and humid in Henan. I ended getting a squid kebab, a sort of spicy lettuce wrap and a pineapple on a stick. According to the guidebook, there is only one touristy thing to do in Zhengzhou, and that is to go see the Henan Provincial Museum (which looks like pyramid). Outside the museum, we were appalled to see how long the lineup was. Apparently the museum recently became free, and since the Friday was a holiday, it seems as though everyone in Zhengzhou wanted to get in. While I was ready to give up, Martin went and asked the guard at the front of the line whether he could get tickets for us. Surprisingly, he was happy to help us, and brought us some tickets which allowed us to avoid wating in line for an hour! Apparently Chinese speaking white-people are well-liked by the Chinese. The museum was quite interesting and contained many bronzes, especially from the Shang Dynasty that were unearthed in Zhengzhou, the site of a former Shang city. Sadly, there were not many mirrors there.

After finishing in the museum, we went to the bus station to go to Luoyang, a couple of hours away. The bus drive took longer than expected due to appallingly bad traffic out of Zhengzhou, but the drive was interesting. There were many cliffs with caves in them and villages built in deep valleys. We hadn't booked any hotels and finding one in Luoyang was bit of an issue. Nevertheless, we did manage to get one, although it was more expensive than we hoped for. It was also strange, and our room had filthy carpets and an electronic Mahjong table.

The next day we had a pretty mediocre breakfast at the hotel (although it was free), and headed out to the Longmen grottoes. The grottoes are a world heritage sight, and built beginning in the Northern Wei Dynasty, although most of the statues were carved during the Tang dynasty. We were dropped off near the grottoes, and had to walk past about a kilometer of tourist shops built in the old-style to get to the entrance to the grottoes. Unfortunately they were swarming with tourists. Being grottoes built alongside a cliff-face, the paths to the individual grottoes were quite narrow. tihs created bottlenecks in which it was difficult to move. The grottoes were extremely impressive though. Built on two cliff-faces with a river separating them, the scenery was also lovely. The best grotto wasn't even a grotto per say as the statues were so large, an entire segment of cliff had to be cut out. On the other side of the river, therewere several smaller grottoes, and a temple that was being rebuilt. After finishing the grottoes, we we stopped at the Guanlin temple on the way back, built at the burial site of a famous general of the Three Kingdom period. Afterwards we went into old Luoyang and walked around, visiting a drum tower, and enjoying what little traditional architecture remained.

For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended in the guide to try Luoyang's famous 'Water Banquet', a series of 24 dishes all cooked in liquid. Of course, we could not order 24, so we just ordered 6. Overall, they weren't that exciting, but I was glad ot have tried them. On the wall of the restaurant there was a photo of Pierre Trudeau and Zhou Enlai. Apparently in the 1970s they ate at that very restaurant!

On Sunday we left relatively early because we were going to Dengfeng, about an hour and a half away. Dengfeng is the locasion of Songshan, one of China's sacred Daoist mountains. Its most famous attraction is the Shaolin monastery. Before going to Dengfeng, Jeff wanted to go see the Peony garden that Luoyang was apparently famous for. The garden was dreadful however, with none of the floweres being in bloom, and being of generally poor design. After the garden, we went to the bus station and were cajoled into taking a minibus to Dengfeng by an aggressive driver. The drive was quite picturesque, especially the part that took us through the mountains. Upon arrival in Dengfeng, we checked into an extremely cheap hotel and ate at a hole-in-the wall restaurant. Dengfeng is a typical Chinese city being quite ugly. However it was located in a spectacular natural setting, surrounded by mountains. The Shaolin temple was expensive to get into (100 kaui), and swarming with tourists. Because the temple was burned down in the 1920s, most of the buildings date from the 1980s. It was altogether quite a tacky attraction.
The Pagoda forest nearby was much more impressive, and a trip by chairlift was aslo quite pleasant, apart from the repetitive music they played from the loudspeakers. After finishing at the temple, we returned to the city. The taxi driver recommended we try some Dengfeng snack food, which was tofu and spicy sauce stuffed into a bun. It wasn't that great actually. The following morning we decided to go Zhongyue temple, which actually ended up being much more interesting than the Shaolin temple. While we there, they were conducting a ceremony to unveil some new statues. There were lots of people, and they stared at us. Afterwards we caught a minibus to Zhengzhou and caught the train back to Beijing.