Longmen Grottoes

Hello,everyone!
Just now I add some information about our city—Luoyang!
Now I am in Candada. I miss my city very much!
Luoyang is an old historicism city.There are a lot of famous interested places. In addition,Luoyang is the hometown of chinese national flower—peony!!
Every April is the best time that you can visit Luoyang.
Welcome everyone to visit my hometown—Luoyang.

Luoyang (Simplified Chinese: 洛阳; Traditional Chinese: 洛陽; pinyin: Luòyáng) is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province, People’s Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.

Situated on the central plain of China, one of cradles of the Chinese civilization, Luoyang was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

In history, there were many names of Luoyang, such as “Luoyi” (洛邑), “Luozhou (洛州)”, etc. But mainly, Luoyang has been the main name for this city.

Also, this city was once called “Dongdu” (東都, meaning the Eastern Capital during the Tang Dynasty), “Xijing” (西京, meaning the West Capital in the Song Dynasty), or “Jingluo” (京洛, meaning the general capital for China).

Located to the north of the Luohe River, this is the name origin of “Luoyang

History
The original city was constructed by the Duke of Zhou (周公) in the 11th century BC as a settlement for the remnants of the captured Shang nobilities and was thus named Chengzhou. It became the capital of the Zhou Dynasty since 770 BC. The city was destroyed in a civil war in 510 BC and rebuilt the next year at the request of the king.

In AD 25, Luoyang became the capital of Eastern Han Dynasty. Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty were also established in Luoyang. For several centuries, Luoyang was the gravity center of China. When Jin was overrun by barbarians and forced to move its capital to Jiankang (modern day Nanjing), however, the capital city was nearly totally destroyed.

In AD 68, the White Horse Temple, first Buddhist temple in China, was founded in Luoyang. The temple still exists, albeit the architecture is of later origin, mainly from the 1500s. An Shihkao was one of the first monks to popularize Buddhism in Luoyang.

In AD 190, chancellor Dong Zhuo ordered to ransack and pillage the city before razing most of the buildings to the ground. The court is moved to Chang’an, since it is better suited to repel the coalition set up against him.

In AD 493 the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital from Datong to Luoyang and started the construction of the artificial Longmen Caves. More than 30,000 Buddhist statues from the time of this dynasty have been found in the caves.

Culture
The Longmen Grottoes were listed by the UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites in November 2000. White Horse Temple is located 12km east of the modern town. Guanlin is a series of temples that have been built in honor of a hero of the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu, close to the grottoes to the south of the city. China’s only tombs museum, the Luoyang Ancient Tombs Museum is situated north of the modern town. Luoyang Museum is in the center of town.

Luoyang is also famous for the Water Banquet Shui Xi, which consists of 8 cold and 16 warm dishes cooked in various broths, gravies or juices, hence its name.

Luoyang has a reputation as a cultivation centre for peony (city flower of Luoyang).