Luoyang: Longmen Grotto

Mention about Luoyang, most people will take peony as the name card of this ancient city. But as for me, I went Luoyang for one of the four famous grottoes — Longmen Grotto.

Longmen Grotto is located between the Yique valley in the south of Luoyang City, with Yihe River flowing across the two mountains,west mountains and east mountains. Boating on the river, I felt just like weaving through the long history of China. Walking along from the east to west in front of the statues of Buddhas, I imagined myself acting in a time-travel drama, beginning from Northern Wei Dynasty, and going through Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang Dynasties and Five Dynasties (709-960).

With more than 400 years carving from Northern Wei Dynasty to North Song Dynasty, now Longmen Grotto posses more than 2,100 caves, 100,000 statues and 3,600 stone tablets.

There is a tallest one among them , which is at a height of 17.14 meter . Its head is 4 meter high and its ear is 1.9 meter long . The carving buddha looks like a smiling, bright and kindly middle-age woman with wisdom. It was built at the Tang dynasty while the Li zhi and Wu ze tian were king and queen, and the shortest one is only 2 cm height.