Chinese Fiddle

There are pics today. Most people who visit Louyang make it a half-day trip to visit the grotto. But Road Scholar emphasizes more education and contact with locals. After we checked into our hotel and had dinner, we went to a presentation about traditional Chinese musical instruments. This could have been really boring. But the Master brought some local students to demonstrate. He demonstrated himself. And he made sure the music was pleasing to the audience — i.e. Western tunes. It was a delightful evening.

Longmen Grotto Budda (stollen from the Internet)

The next morning was breakfast. I have to say, I am impressed. The Beijing hotel had the best breakfast buffet I have ever seen. Louyang is a much smaller city and the hotel is older. But the Louyang buffet was actually better. There were hundreds of items, all cooked fresh. There’s no way we’re losing weight on this vacation.

Grotto Rock

The it was off to the grotto. This was an area where people carved grottos into the limestone cliffs along the Yi River. 1400 caves were created between 500 and 900 AD. The carvings are remarkable. They were all hand made, most with an army of artisans. I have several photos, but the image on the Internet is much better. So I stole it. The stone with a floral pattern was crated by some kind of natural volcanic process 300 million years ago.

Our lunch was with a family at a Chinese village. This village had about 7,000 residents. We broke up into groups of 8 and ate at one of three houses. We talked about life in china, with our tour guide as an interpreter. The family put out a feast. We couldn’t eat 1/4 of the food. We learned a lot and had a great time.

School English Class

We finished up the day by visiting an English class in the village school. Danita and I visited a class of 12-year olds. Chinese 12-year olds are exactly like US 12-year olds, so far as I can determine. I was impressed by how good their English is. One of the students took this picture. The finger is not mine.

Man Taking Pictures in the Park

We had dinner on our own. Danita and I had so much food today, we found a bakery and had dinner for a few bucks. We ate in the local park. The park is right across the street from our  hotel. It’s a popular spot, with dozens of groups of people doing their own thing. If you look closely, you can see a man in a blue jacket taking pictures of the flowers.This is a good time to mention that China has a massive project to make their country green. Everywhere you look, there are attractive gardens and newly-planted trees.

Girl in Park

Here’s another pic from the park. These pics are misleading. One doesn’t often see individuals doing their thing in the park. It’s almost always large groups of people, often to the accompniement of music. One can often hear 2 or 3 different songs at the same time. Somehow it all works. I’ve never seen a cross or unhappy person in a Chinese park.