If you’re planning a trip to China, chances are you have heard of the Shaolin Monastery. This is definitely somewhere you should visit and I’ll be sharing about my experience with you in this post! But did you know that the nearby city of Luoyang has heaps of interesting things to do as well? Luoyang was the second city we visited on Peregrine Adventures’ Best of China tour and was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. This is my complete guide to Luoyang and the Shaolin Monastery.
Guide to the Shaolin Monastery
Visiting the Shaolin Monastery (also known as the Shaolin temple) is somewhere you absolutely must visit in China. So what better way to start my Luoyang guide than to write about it! Located two hours drive from Luoyang, you will need most of a day to explore the monastery. The Shaolin Monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. If you are visiting the Shaolin Monastery, there are three areas you should visit, which I will write about below. Of course, there are other things you can see, but these are the highlights.
Kung Fu Show
Given that Shaolin is the birthplace of Kung Fu, you can’t miss the Kung Fu show! This demonstration is performed by the students of the Shaolin Academy. It is on five times a day and is included in most tickets to the monastery. Unfortunately, we missed the start of the show and ended up crammed in a doorway near the back. We could still see, though and it was interesting to see the students from the Shaolin school perform their Kung Fu routines! The commentary for the show was all in Mandarin so I can’t tell you exactly what was happening, but all you need to know was it was very impressive! We were also lucky enough to spot a large group of students from the school practising Kung Fu! So make sure you keep an eye out as you walk down to the show.
Shaolin Temple
The next place to visit is the temple itself. Whilst it is not the original temple, it has been rebuilt based on photos found in Japan. As I mentioned above, Shaolin Temple is the birthplace of Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism, which makes it a very interesting place to visit. The temple is quite beautiful, complete with lots of statues of the 9 sons of dragon, Buddhist deities, and, of course, Buddha himself. One of the most interesting stories we were told, is that at one point in history, the monks at the Shaolin temple had to practice Kung Fu in secret. If you look into the building at the very back of the temple, you can still see the dents on the floor where the monks repeatedly stamped in the same place.
Overall, the Shaolin temple was a super interesting place to visit! If you are visiting, I also recommend you go to the bathroom outside of the temple itself (other areas of the monastery are fine). The toilets in the temple are quite basic and can be dirty.
Pagoda Forest
The final place I recommend you visit in the Shaolin Monastery is the Pagoda Forest. It won’t take you long to explore this area, but I found it very peaceful being in amongst the trees. In Buddhism, high ranking monks are cremated and their ashes are placed into the base of a pagoda. As a general rule, higher ranking monks get taller pagodas. However, this is not always the case at the Shaolin Monastery due to a lack of money at some points in history. What really makes the pagoda forest here interesting is the different shaped pagodas from different dynasties. For example, the round pagodas are from when Mongolians ruled the area. There was even a more modern pagoda which was a darker colour and had a laptop carved into it to represent modern times!
Getting around Shaolin Monastery
If you are visiting the Shaolin Monastery, you will need to be prepared for a long day with lots of walking. Make sure you bring lots of water, especially if you are visiting in summer. There is an option to get a buggy back to the front of the monastery from near the pagoda forest but this costs extra. My mum and sister chose to take the buggy while my dad and I walked. By walking, we got to admire the surrounding area a bit more than we did on our way down, which was nice.
BONUS! Have lunch at the Yongtai Temple
Our tour to the Shaolin Monastery also included a trip to the nearby Yongtai Temple. This was the first female monk temple in China and is now home to an amazing vegetarian restaurant. All of the food is made in the Buddhist style, which replicates meat using soy products or mushrooms. Some of the stuff seriously looked like meat; it was kind of insane. I’m planning on having a whole post about the food in China because we had some interesting experiences over the duration of our trip, so I’ll provide more detail then.
We were also very impressed to see the chefs displaying some seriously beautiful dishes on the way out! They were literally works of art! All were vegetarian and created scenes such as the local landscape and frogs in a pond. All in all, this was a great way to end our trip to Shaolin.
Highlights of Louyang City
Let’s get into the Luoyang city part of this guide, shall we? The vast majority of people will only visit Luoyang as a base to explore the Shaolin Temple. That’s certainly the only reason I thought we were visiting. However, there are a couple of other cool things that you can check out in the city if you have more time! Below, I have written about the Longmen Grottoes and Wangcheng Park.
Longmen Grottoes
The Longmen Grottoes are one of the main attractions in the Luoyang area, alongside the Shao Lin Temple. Longmen means “dragon gate” and refers to a section of the Yi River which has hills towering up on either side. This area gets its name because the two hills look like Chinese gate towers. Artificial caves have been carved into the hills and filled with carvings of Buddha. The vast majority of the caves are located on the West side of the river. However, as they began running out of room, they started carving on the Eastern bank.
The carvings come from a variety of dynasties, including the Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties, with each dynasty producing a different style of carving. Whilst a lot of the faces have been chipped off the smaller carvings, there are some very impressive caves here! I was particularly impressed with the giant Buddha and the 10,000 Buddha cave. There was literally more than 10,000 tiny Buddhas carved into the walls and roof!
If you’re planning a trip to the Longmen Grottoes, be prepared for a lot of walking and stairs. Whilst there is a buggy that takes you to and from the car park, it is quite a way to walk along the whole West side plus all the way to the East bank. If you’re short on time, the West bank is much more impressive.
Wangcheng Park
Luoyang is home to a peony festival, which runs from April until May each year. This festival is famous in China and Wangcheng park is one of the best places to view the flowers! Even if you’re not visiting during the festival, it’s worth a visit. We decided to walk down to this park in the evening after our day at the Shaolin temple. Wangcheng park is the biggest park in Luoyang and is renowned for its cultural sites. With various tablets, halls, gates and pavilions to see, it’s definitely interesting and a nice place to explore. We thought the gardens were beautiful, and I imagine it’d be even more stunning in spring with all the flowers! Entry to the park itself is free, except during the Peony festival. You will also need to pay if you wish to visit the small zoo in the northern end of the park.
Where to stay in Luoyang
While in Luoyang, we stayed at the Luoyang Peony Hotel. The hotel was in a great location, being only a short walk from the Wangcheng park and close to some nice restaurants. Like in Shanghai, breakfast was included with our stay and had heaps of different options. You could even have chicken nuggets and chips for breakfast if you wanted to! There was also more standard breakfast stuff, like pastries, fruit and fried rice.
Getting around Luoyang
As I mentioned above, it is possible to walk to some attractions in Luoyang depending on where you stay. Unfortunately I can’t provide too much information for this part of the guide, because we took a private shuttle bus from Luoyang to the Shaolin Temple, Longmen Grottoes and train station. If you are not on a tour, it is possible to get a bus from Luoyang to the Shaolin Temple and to the Longmen Grottoes. From what I can see online, the bus system in Luoyang is quite good.
That’s all I’ve got for my guide to Luoyang! I hope you’ve found it helpful and have been inspired to travel to Luoyang and the Shaolin Monastery some day. It really was an interesting destination. Don’t forget to check out my YouTube video if you’re wanting more inspiration for your China trip (including footage from the Shaolin Kung Fu show!). You can also head to my China Destination page for more information about the country.
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What a fun trip!
It was so much fun! Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂