Luoyang is one of the ancient capital city of China, but it is not as popular as Beijing among travelers. So, as a foreigner be prepared to take pictures with the natives or any other Chinese travelers for that matter as they are not used to seeing foreigners. To be honest, you won't even have a choice because they will be taking pictures of you whether you like it or not, so might as well cooperate and make the best out of it.
ITINERARY
Day 1 - Longman Grottoes and Snack Street
We got to Luoyang in the afternoon, so after relaxing and napping for a bit we went to check out Longman grottoes. We got our tickets at the main entrance and took the electric car for roughly 10 minutes to the grottoes entrance. From that point on, we walked into the grottoes Dragon Gate.
We were strolling around for a bit before we saw the first carvings which were amazing limestone carvings of Buddhas from different dynasties.These grottoes are man-made and all of the caves come in different sizes with at least a Buddha statue inside.
Along the way we came across many optional stairs we went up a couple to see some engraved grottoes but we soon realized that they are all similar. Mount Longmen faces Yi River and the view is nice. Especially from up the mountains.
This place is humongous but the highlight is the gigantic grotto at the mountainside where we had to climb up some stairs to see it. It's pretty huge and impressive and the history behind it is amazing! As we were strolling around we made sure we went up the mountains to get the best view of Longman grottoes. There are thousands of statues carved out within the mountainside.
Once we crossed over to the other side of the river, we came across a small museum of ruined statues and mountains followed by Fengxian Temple. Towards the exit is Bai Garden but the place was closing, so we didn't get the chance to check it out Along the way out however, we got to see multiple statues of famous monks.
Direction to Longman Grottoes
To get to Longman we took a taxi from our hotel but if you are going straight from Luoyang Railway Station you can take a taxi or bus no. K81 and get off at the last station. If you are going from Longmen Railway Station, taxi should be cheap (CNY 15) be careful of taxi scammers. However, if you prefer a bus take bus no. K71 and get off at Longmen Grottoes Station.
Luoyang Snack Street
Luoyang has a great ancient traditional snack street filled with food and food only. The South Snack streets are very popular in China, so it was no surprise that this one was extremely crowded. There are a lot of snacks to select from, so it makes it hard to choose. The snacks are pretty cheap so we tried as many as we could even after snacking we were still hungry so we grabbed dinner at one of the local restaurants nearby and headed back to the hotel.
Day 2 - National Flower garden & White Horse Temple Hopping
After breakfast we went to the Chinese National Flower Garden which is the largest peony park in China.
I quickly noticed how much Chinese people love flowers and admire peonies. The place was crowded with people from all over China who had come to witness the scene of peony blossom. I honestly don't get it all the hype for flowers, but then again Chinese people are crazy for plants in general. There are several distinctive buildings there with many more flowers, but majority of them were not blooming yet.
The best thing about this garden was being able to witness amazing artists showcasing their impressive talents. I even had the opportunity to meet one of China's famous artist who was very humble and pretty cool! He sells his work for CNY 8000 or more with the cheapest being CNY 5000. Just putting it out here in case you want something authentic while you are in China (Luoyang) and got the money for it. However for me, his wisdom was a nice gift to take away from my visit. :)
Afterwards, we went to White Horse Temple Complex which is on the opposite side of the garden. To get to the real temples and white horse though, we had first to go through some shop street even after passing through the main gate, so we grabbed some snacks from the vendors around us.
White Horse Temple
White Horse Temple is also known as Baima Temple is China's first Buddhist Temple. It's not any different in appearance from other temples in China, but its history is. And it's quite interesting!
This temple was built by Emperor Ming as an appreciation for two white horses that carried two Indian Buddhist monks who brought books of Buddhist scriptures, relics and statues of Buddha on those horses into China joined by two of Ming's emissaries. They had departed China to search for Buddhist scriptures and encountered the Indian Buddhist monks in Afghanistan, so they persuaded them to return to China with them.
The temple became home for the Indian monks and they translated the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. And so the Buddhist religion began to prosper. But when another monk from India joined them in the 5th century, Buddhism evolved and spread to other countries.
White Horse temple is inside a huge complex and within the complex are three new additional temples donated by India, Myanmar, and Thailand.
We spent most of our day temple hopping and there is a lot to see but to be honest, if you don't know the history than it won't be worth it. That same night we left Luoyang. There are many things that you can definitely check out in Luoyang. However, for us, a weekend was enough.
Direction to White Horse Temple
We took a taxi from our hotel but if you are going straight from Luoyang Railway Station you can take bus No.56 and get off at the last stop. From Longmen Railway Station however, take bus No.65 and get off at Guanlin Market Station, then transfer to bus No.58.
HOW TO GET TO LUOYANG
We went from Zhengzhou ( the Capital City of Henan Provance) to Louyang by train which was the cheapest alternative for us since we were already there. However, if you are trying to visit Luoyang from other parts of China (Beijing, Shanghai etc.) do not fly out to Zhengzhou that's too expensive and too much hustle. Instead, take a bullet train directly to Louyang.
BEST TIME TO GO
I would definitely recommend going during early spring as it gets very hot and crowded during summer.
Avoid going during any Chinese holidays as it tends to get extremely crowded.We went early April during a Chinese national holiday, so it was pretty crowded and somewhat hot but it was definitely worth the trip.