Luoyang, Thirteen Dynasties and a Flower — editorial illustration
洛阳

Luoyang

Thirteen Dynasties and a Flower

Editorial illustration · not a site photograph
  • 3 daysgrottoes, temple, museum, old town
  • Aprilpeony festival; book everything early
  • By railaround 40 minutes from Zhengzhou by HSR
  • Reservetimed, real-name entry at the big sights

Luoyang served as capital to more dynasties than any other Chinese city — thirteen by the usual count, from the Eastern Zhou through the Tang — and its greatest sights are all conversations with that past: the Longmen Grottoes, where half a millennium of carvers turned two river cliffs into a Buddhist gallery; the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist monastery on Chinese soil; and every April, the peonies, the flower this city has loved for some fourteen centuries. It is an easy, grid-plan city to visit now, with high-speed rail, its own metro, and a soup culture worth planning mornings around.

Luoyang, Thirteen Dynasties and a Flower editorial travel scene
Luoyang, Thirteen Dynasties and a Flower · editorial illustration

The full handbook is part of the paid series

You have read the free preview — the introduction and the route map. The complete handbook adds the day-by-day plan, tickets and transport, culture and etiquette, food, useful Chinese, and the dated source list.