Luoyang's river valley has been a capital for one dynasty after another, and the layers sit almost on top of each other. South of the city the Yi River cuts a gap between Xiangshan and Longmen Shan, and the cliff on its western bank carries 2,345 niches and more than 100,000 statues carved between the fifth and tenth centuries. East of the city the first Buddhist temple in China, founded in 68 CE, still keeps its five-hall axis and its Song stone horses at the gate. Further out at Yanshi, a mound 300 metres square of ancient settlement turned out to be a walled palace town with a grid of streets and rows of bronze-casting kilns, now covered by a museum opened in 2019.
Longmen is a kilometre of carved cliff on both sides of the Yi River. Cross the water and the statues turn from a skyline into bodies you can measure, from a 17.14-metre Buddha to a niche no taller than your hand.
A temple dated to 68 CE, two Song-dynasty stone horses, and a 1556 restoration bring different periods of Luoyang’s Buddhist history together.
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At Erlitou, a planned road network and a 64.5-centimetre turquoise dragon bring an early urban landscape into view. The site is often linked with a Xia capital, an identification that remains an archaeological interpretation.
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Luoyang’s water banquet follows a fixed sequence of 24 dishes: eight cold plates open the meal, soup dishes arrive in succession, and egg soup closes it.
ReadSome 2,345 niches and more than 100,000 statues carved into a kilometre of limestone cliff on both banks of the Yi River south of Luoyang, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000.
The monastery founded in 68 CE on the eastern edge of Luoyang, where the first Chinese Buddhist scriptures were translated and where two Song stone horses still stand at the gate.
A 300-hectare early Bronze Age town in Yanshi, west of Luoyang, with a palace zone, a street grid and bronze-casting workshops; the Erlitou Xia Capital Museum opened in 2019.
