From Nanjing, I stopped off in Luoyang to visit the Shaolin Temple (for all you under 30ers out there, think Wu Tang Clan) and Longmen Caves on separate day trips. Shaoling Temple is an active training sight of Shaolin boxing with 6000 students at any given time. You can see the kids and teenagers out in the fields and around the dorms training. I snapped a few pics before my batteries died. (A serious problem with my camera. I have now gone through nearly 20 sets of batteries in the last 6 weeks.) Most of what you get to see is a smattering of Taoist style temples through the mountain and valley region of Shaolin. A little different than the standard Taoist stuff as it has a martial arts spin to it. There was also the pagoda forest with 240 some small pagodas (buddhist towers usually constructed of hexagonal or octagonal levels) that was a little neat to wander through. Honestly though, I felt it was a bit over-hyped and over-priced.
Longmen Caves, on the otherhand, was well worth the stop. My expectations were somewhat low as I have seen countless Buddhist statuaries and architectural features on this trip and on a previous trip to SE Asia. However, I found a refreshing flare to the statuaries here for two reasons. First, the sculptures themselves showed quite a sense of character. They were animated and emotional with figures I have not normally seen accompany sitting or sleeping buddhas. There seemed to be some heavy influence from Taoist and Hindu deities and personalities. Secondly, I was most taken a back by the sheer scale of the caves. From about 500 to 700 AD they carved nearly 100,000 statues in caves of all sizes dotting a cliff face stretching nearly 3/4 of a mile. Even from across the river bank and up the opposing hillside I could not get it all in a single camera frame. I happily toured the sights for a couple hours. No amount of marauding tourist groups could dampen the experience.
I used Luoyang as a base camp and outside a little wandering of the streets did not get to see too much. But one particular highlight sticks out in my mind: I found a place selling a plate of 3 dozen steamed pork dumplings for about 85 cents. Maybe I already mentioned that in another post. I don't care - they were awesome! On to Xi'an.
Xi'an is home of one of the most famous Chinese historical sites next to the Great Wall: the Terracotta Warriors. For several weeks I had been asking travelers I crossed paths with if making the trip out to Xi'an was worth it just for the Warriors. The responses were split right down the middle of extremes - Everyone either loved it or hated it. So to break the tie, I went there myself. I got out early to the Warriors in hopes to beat the crowd. I was initially successful, but my malfunctioning audio guide required some TLC from the staff giving time for the crowds to catch me. No worries though, the site more than made up for it. Currently, it is still an active archealogical site with several statues left to be uncovered. The purpose and history of the statues is fairly straighforward. They were built by slave labor over decades to protect the egominical emporer in the after life and then they were later desicrated by another egominical leader. However, the archealogical and artistic appeal overshadow the narcisim. Each Warrior is entirely unique in appearance. Not just the faces but the body, - some were skinny, some had a little bit of a gut, etc. The were archers, soilders, charioteers with horses and several ranking officers as well as different squadrons with differing roles. The Warriors were lined up in two rows and covered by a wooden beam structure which was then covered in straw mats and buried. So of course the wood rotted and collapsed in on the Warriors, but that was only after some nut job emporer destroyed much of them. What remains now is three sites, largely unexcavacted and hundreds of reconstructed soldiers. It is all generally impressive and makes you wonder what it takes to drive an individual to undertake such a construction project only to bury it all.
There are many other historical and religious sites to visit surrounding Xi'an, but I was satisfied. Xi'an itself is a pretty nice city too. I was told by a few travelers that it is very dirty and just an all around terrible city. Apparently, there is another Xi'an I am not aware of or these people have not visited many Chinese cities. The city is nice to walk around in and very lively. There is also a large city wall here built in the late 1300s that surrounded the original city during the Ming dynasty. The city now has sprawled out way past those early boundaries but there is plenty to keep one busy for days within the walls. The walls are also completely intact and I biked all 14 km of it. I also visited my first Chinese mosque here. THE minerat was disguised as a pagoda - ha! On the downside, Xi'an has the highest concentration of noticeable tourists next to Shanghai (in my opinion). As I wrote about previously, after my failed attempt to reach Mt Taibai I had to part ways with Xi'an.
Ok, I'm starting to get caught up. I leave for Beijing in a few hours and hope to get the rest posted soon.
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