We were awoken early by the switching on of the lights, ready for an early arrival in Luoyang, tho’ we still had time for our by now habitual breakfast coffee. We were over-anxious, however, + and tried to get off the train one station too early. Luckily, there was a conductress at the bottom of the steps, who quickly turned us round. Outside the station – the right station – we had a small row. It was brought on by the tiredness, tetchiness + irritation, this last exacerbated by the peculiar helplessness of the situation in China, especially when one is completely new to a town. We did have some directions for a hotel, thank God, but had no real idea how to apply them. The powerlessness is common in China, but never loses its quality to frustrate, so as usual, for want of someone better, we took it out on one another. I suppose it’s some sort of mark of the strength of our relationship that these tiffs rarely last beyond a few minutes. But in any case, anger is self-defeating, because it diverts one’s energies + attention away from the real business at hand, which is finding some way out. Venting one’s rage advances one not a single inch. And in fact, we did find the bus without too much further trouble, + from there were soon at the hotel.
There was no problem there + the price was reasonable, so we checked in. Only then did we discover that the train journey to Xian, our next stop, took 7 and a half hours, + that there was a train tonight at 10. Since our ticket validity was ticking away, we decided to try for that tonight, + promptly checked out again. The people at the desk were surprisingly good about it – we were able to leave our bags there, so that we could spend our day sight-seeing, unencumbered. We had rather a busy schedule to get around to everything, but decided to give it a go.
First stop were the Long Men caves, 8 miles out of town. These had been dug out by man, a few centuries ago – forgive my sketch knowledge of Chinese history – from the cliff along the sides of a river, + housed thousands + thousands of carvings of Buddha, ranging from a few cms to 50 feet. It was impressive, in its way, but I found it rather depressingly artificial, empty + futile. All that effort, + for what? (tho’ I realise the danger of being too metaphysical here – what is the point of anything?) Plus, tho’ the commercial exploitation wasn’t as crass as it would have been in, say, America, the Chinese version was there. At first I found the Chinese school of photography – a human figure posed in the foreground of every shot – old-fashioned + quaint. Now, it simply annoys me. So we spent nothing like the half-day there recommended by Fodor’s guide, but shortly caught the bus.
On the way back to town, we stopped off at Guan Lin temple, recommended to us by the people at the hotel. This we found much more interesting. For a start, being off the beaten track a little, there were far less people. It also had the qualities of tranquillity + reverence, unusual in an Asian place of worship. In itself, tho, it was unspectacular, + had the usual trappings of a Buddhist temple: huge, gilt Buddhas, along with thousands of smaller effigies of the chap, banners, gongs, bells, + covering everything, a shabby gaudiness… or is it the other way round? Then it was back on the bus to town. We ignored the blandishments of a rickshaw driver offering to take us there for 10 times the cost. He didn’t seem to mind, treating it as rather a game. He was fat + jolly, like a Buddha himself, only surviving in his trade because the rickshaws of Luoyang were powered by whining petrol engines.
The bus took us to the West Gate. It is supposed to be part of the old city, but we saw no evidence of this – it had the same unimaginative factories, shops, + blocks of flats as almost everywhere else in China. It was also reputed to have good food-stalls however, + this we certainly found to be the case, for we had the most splendid + enormous lunch there, of a huge bowl of noodle soup, with a sort of deep-fried filled pancake. Good good food.
In the afternoon, it was out to Bal Ma Si, another temple, again 8 miles out of town, but in the opposite direction. This was very disappointing, especially after visiting Guan Lin, for it had quite a few more people looking at it, nothing very different, + certainly none of Guan Lin’s charm. A couple of hundred yards away was a pagoda, a famous Luoyang landmark, used on posters, T-shirts etc. In pictures it looks quite impressive; in the flesh, so to speak, it is a con, being just a miniaturized version of many far more spectacular pagodas. We gave it no more than a second glance before marching back to the bus-stop. Our final tourist venue was the railway stn. It had some superbly amusing posters, showing railway workers jolly + stern. We’ve taken quite a few pictures of Chinese propaganda posters, + wanted to add these to our collection.
Returned to the hotel to take a shower – we asked permission, + they didn’t object – followed by dinner. We hadn’t yet experienced set meals in the restaurants – if this one is a fair example, we shan’t again for choice, for it was poor + expensive. You can’t win them all, I suppose. We collected our bags + headed back to the stn once again, + sat down to wait on the steps outside, it being a balmy evening. While Val went off to have our tickets validated, I set up the radio + plugged in the headphones, attracting, naturally enough, quite a crowd. And the crowd attracted a bigger crowd, but I ignored them + eventually they grew bored with the show + went back to what they had been doing before. There were thousands of people milling around, or so it seemed, so it was quite a relief when we discovered there was a train to Beijing leaving just before ours, + sure enough loads of people went thro’ the gate to get on that one. Even so, our train had at least its fair share, + despite the valiant efforts of the staff to keep order, there was a virtual stampede from the gate to the platform… + the train hadn’t even arrived yet. When it did pull in, a firm control was needed at every doorway, the staff were nowhere, + the situation was impossible. At the carriage we were at, a young girl was the last to exit, + she hadn’t got properly down the steps before the crowd surged forward, nearly sweeping her back up again. I’m sure the people in the crowd aren’t normally mean + spiteful, but it was an ugly situation, + it was only with enormous difficulty that she struggled free, in a poor way. Val is no weakling, but she was having problems avoiding being shoved by the crowd around the corner of the carriage, + when I saw some bloke pulling her by her rucksack, I lost my temper. First, I hauled him off – I must have been angry, he was bigger than me – then I yelled + screamed at them. “Animals! Barbarians! Call yourselves civilised!?” They didn’t understand the words, of course, but I think they got the meaning. At any event, the crush eased a little, + both Val + I got aboard. It was all so unnecessary, that was the stupid thing. The train was already packed when it pulled in to the stn, + anyone getting off there would have had their seat filled long before anybody getting on could possibly claim it. It was impossibly crowded inside, but we struggled + shoved + wormed our way thro’ the carriages to the hard sleeper section where, luckily, they had a couple of berths. We handed over Y20 + climbed into them gratefully.
Can’t say we were over-enthused by the charms of Luoyang, as the major attractions involved getting out of town to visit caves and temples – not our favourite activity. But really, it was not much more than a way to pass time before getting back on the train.
Time-killing with temples, it would seem, was the order of the day, before finally having to brave the rigours of fighting one’s way onto a train.
