2025-12-16 Yanping

 Big Travel Day - 8 hour train trip

But before we went on the train, we visited the Luoyang Museum, which was on the way to the station.

We couldn't really do it justice in a week, let alone a few hours, but what we saw was impressive enough.

Then it was on to the station, with the security checks and ticket checks, then the long 8 hour train trip to Yanping, Toby's home town, and the home of his parents and relatives.

It was after 2100 when we arrived, but Toby's mum was very excited to see Isaac, as he was to see his Nainai.

Toby's uncle drove us to our hotel in his son's brand new and top spec'ed Land-Rover Discovery, a behemoth of a vehicle with all the bells and whistles, including a huge LED console screen.  He drove it cautiously, as he doesn't drive it often, but in the Chinese manner - straddling lanes and so on - I am still not used to it.

Toby's dad was at the hotel, and guided us through the procedures, and took us up to the 16th floor room, where there was a pot of evening soup provided by Toby's mum waiting for us, a very nice gesture.

Luoyang Museum

Luoyang Museum

Horse and trainer, from a tomb, Luoyang Museum

Every tourist spot seems to have a specific to that site themed ice-cream - this is the 'buddies' figurine from Luoyang Museum

Pillow, ceramic, Luoyang Museum

Silk tapestry, with gold and silver thread, Luoyang Museum

Buddhist pagoda, from a single trunk of Phoebe zhennan, a extremely valuable and rare species - this exhibit is the most valuable in the museum

Luoyang Museum entrance/foyer/atrium

Luoyang Museum entrance/foyer/atrium

Every museum needs a big bone display

A visitor with a companion parrot



Figurines from a tomb - a minature Tomb Warriors for those who aren't emperors



Last views of Luoyang from the taxi

Last views of Luoyang from the taxi


Last views of Luoyang from the railway station


One of the few BYD Seagulls that I saw here - though I saw more here than in other cities

Our train getting into the station




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2025-12-11 Xi'an

Image
  Roaming around the ancient capital of Xian We breakfasted early to head out to see the great walls around the former imperial capital - these are huge, and form a rectangular perimeriter of just under 15 km, with a water filled moat that also goes the full length of the walls.  Along with the main gates and watchtowers, these surpass anything that I have ever seen before in scale. Perhaps a harbinger of things to come, Penny and I were unable to hire bikes to ride around the city walls, as bike hire is restricted to those aged between 12 - 65 years.  Somewhat disappointed at this flagrant ageism, Penny and I encouraged Pippa to have a go, and she rode the full length of the permissible route (a section around the South Gate is closed to bicycles; you can hire and drop off a bike at various points along the almost 15 km of wall). Contenting ourselves with a walk along the wall for a bit, then down to the street market and food vendor area next to the Wumu Gate, ...
Read more

2025-11-30 Chengdu

Image
  Arriving in China at Chendgu! We had a long flight with Sichuan Airlines, the airline owned by the province of Sichuan, and arrived at the brand new international airport also owned by the province. The flight was in a brand new A350 plane.  The food provided was OK, not quite up to the standard of Emirates or Singapore, as there was mini packets of snacks rather than a salad, and the drink selection was water or sugary drinks or very brightly coloured fruit drinks, though I did get a red wine on one round of the drinks trolley.  The service of the flight attendants was exemplary, full marks from me - very attentive to crying babies, old people trying to get to the toilets, and manouvering themselves and trolleys around people in the aisles, and constantly going back and forth with water and juice. The airport is huge, but as it was dark when we arrived (0530) only saw a bit of it as we were bussed from the plane to the terminal (about 20 min). Processing was quickish, ...
Read more

2025-12-03 Dujiangyan Panda Valley

Image
  Pandas and more A big day, requiring an early start, so no leisurely lingering over a buffet breakfast this morning.  Pippa organised a Didi to take us to the Dujiangyan Panda Valley, s a research center near Chengdu, focused on panda conservation, breeding, and reintroduction programs. It's a part of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and is a popular tourist destination for viewing pandas in a more naturalistic setting, and today, in off season, and with an early start, less crowded than other facilities.  The car took us on the freeway/tollway past apartment blocks, technology parks, an enornous building housing an indoor ski area (Chengdu is a centre for outdoor actrivities), shopping centres, car showrooms (Audi, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, Xpeng were some of the many, most brands having logos I didn't recognise), and so on.  We made good time, taking about an hour to get to the Panda Park right on opening time. It is in a lovely location, in the ...
Read more