Caves and Kung Fu

The first thing I have to express is how remarkably clean Luoyang is in contrast to where I wrote from in the last entry. Each city seems to distinguish itself from the last. This one for being the cleanest I have seen in China, the one before for its odd combination of college students and ancient temples, and the one prior to that for everyone seeming to have a pet dog. Some cities are teeming with bikes, while others inexplicably have almost none.

I am really glad I stopped here. Nearby the city are cliffs covered with caves of all sizes; most containing reliefs of Buddhist deities. They are more than a thousand years old.



Notice the tiny people in the front to get a sense of scale...


The other thing I didn't want to miss around here was the Shaolin temple, the birthplace of Kung Fu. At first I felt as though I had been siphoned into another tourist inkwell. We walked past souvenir shops selling all the Kung Fu weaponry and figurines, and after more temples to see, we were prodded into a large auditorium to watch a Kung Fu "performance" that was mildly entertaining.

But the place does have some interesting history and when exploring away from the crowds, its evident. Towards the back of the complex is a woodsy area filled with pagodas for famous monks that date back to 700CE.




And monks do actually live in many of the temples nearby. I caught this scene of the local barbershop:
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"No, just a little off the top!"

Easily the most exciting part of the day was my unscheduled interception of the students in practice. They entered in mass, just as my tour was ending. Hearing a thousand swords (plastic) slice the air or two thousand feet stamp the ground in unison leaves a lasting impression.







The next stop is Beijing..