Kung fu monks and old buddhas in Henan province

City of Luoyang

Well, not really that much worth visiting although it used to be Chinese capital early in Chinese history. Luoyang is mainly an industrial city producing energy (coal power plants), machines and supposedly the EURO coins (I don't know whether they produce the real or the fake ones :-)). Amazing that they are constructing a totally new city centre which is modern architecture (nothing special indeed) and which they are very proud of.

Longmen Grottoes

UNESCO World heritage again. The villagers sculptered these stone buddhas (over 100.000 from 2 cm up to 45m tall) in caves(1.352 caves) back in 494 AD already. Strolling around the river and climbing up some stairs we could visit many of the statues.

Other sights near Luoyang

Nice was the first buddhist temple in China, the Baima Si (white horse temple). Legend has it that white horses carried the first buddhist scriptures / texts from India to the place of Baima Si in 68 AD. We learned a lot about the Chinese form of buddhism there. Now I know that in Chinese buddhism they have five buddhas: the buddha of past, present and future as well as the buddha of north, centre (being the same one as the buddha of the present) and south. The buddha of present can appear in three different forms whereas the others only have one form. Sometimes it's hard to judge the difference. I was told that often even Chinese believers have to have a look on the inscription saying "This is present buddha" in order to know what kind of buddha it is.

The earthern cave dwellings are houses built inside the earth. Farmers built them like this in the past in order to save material costs: They just had to dig. The cave dwelling we visited belonged to a 100-year old grandma. Being able to chat with people like that you notice how much worth it is to learn at least some basic Chinese! The 100-year old grandma belongs to the generation of women where the following was considered as beautiful: small mouth (so-called cherry mouth), small hands (good for homework) and small feet (can't run away). I think I wouldn't have been able to find a man back then in China! The grandma had lillie-feet which means that her feet were broken when she was young in order to make them smaller. The negative consequence: Lillie-footed women couldn't walk without pain. That's why the Chinese government abolished this old custom already some time ago.

Shaolin temple

Originally an old temple which burned down in some kind of civil war and was reconstructed which is said to be the home of Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu).

Kung Fu has many different styles: Fighting with or without weapons, another style with a more yoga approach of fighting etc.. Kung Fu movements are taken from animal movements.

In a show at one of the many Kung Fu schools around the temple we could see amazing Kung Fu - children breaking wood and metal with only one hand and other amazing jumps and movements!

Also interesting - the pagoda forest where the Kung Fu fans can show their appraisal of the dead masters. Only one of the masters had his pagoda built before he died. It says that he suddenly died right after the pagoda was finished.

Today Shaolin monks are rich monks. The head of them could be considered as the "Shaolin CEO". A lot of tourists travel there. Luckily, we weren't there in high season so we still could enjoy the sight.