• Accolades

• Features

Luoyang that is a little west of Zhengzhou City was the capital of the Eastern Han Empire (25 AD- 220 AD). After that, it remained an important city in various empires. The Luoyang Old Town District measures a few square miles as the main center, but it probably extends out over twenty square miles. It is the best place to find remaining ancient architecture. An example is a very big city gate that is said to date from 600 AD though it looks much younger. It is a big arched gate that was part of a city wall. The area also features a museum for folk art that contains local art such as paper cuttings art, local clothing, and other local artwork. Some of the streets are shopping streets that sell a certain kind of good or article. Others are residential streets with small shops and old apartments lining both sides. The streets are still generally old and narrow. One special feature of the area is a Muslim community. Many of Luoyang’s Muslims live here. While there, visit a Muslim restaurant, visit, the shops and see the lives of the people on the streets.

Muslim restaurants are usually called Lanzhou Lamian restaurants. The people make their own noodles, and the spicy flavors with lamb, chicken, or beef toppings are delicious. The food is different from most Chinese food, less oily, and fresher. It is also usually cheaper. They often serve handmade bread as well.

There are a lot of small shops, and you can watch people working on paintings, signs or other things to sell, making food to sell or eat themselves, and eating in the streets. There are a lot of stalls selling food, and the small restaurants set tables on the streets for their customers. You can watch people watching the people go by or playing table games like Mahjong. Luoyang isn’t relatively wealthy, so it is where you can buy lots of goods at cheap prices. It looks like a very traditional residential area. Strolling around shopping and eating would be interesting if you haven’t seen China before.

Luoyang (IPA: [lwɔ̂jɑ̌ŋ]; Chinese: 洛阳) is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central 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. As of the final 2010 census, Luoyang had a population of 6,549,941 inhabitants with 1,857,003 people living in the built-up (or metro) area made of city's five urban districts, all of which except the Jili District not urbanized yet.[1]

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

Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits is worth a visit. The musuem is built over the sacrificial pit area for the emperors in Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770BC – 256BC) with its capital at the site of the present day Luoyang. The burial of the royal horse and chariots here in Luoyang is earlier than that of terra cotta warriors during Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.) in Xian.

The city of Luoyang went through thirteen dynasties and 105 emperors starting Xia Dynasty (2070BC-1600BC), Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC), Eastern Zhou Dynasty(770BC-256BC), Beiwei Dynasty (493AD-534AD), Sui Dynasty (605AD-619AD) and more with a history of over 4,000 years! It should be deifinitely included in your Luoyang tour program.

The museum’s former English name is quite long while it is colloquially called “Tianzi Jialiu Museum”. “Tianzi” means emperors while “Jialiu” means their chariots driven by 6 horses. The dicovery of the Tianzi Jialiu Site has great impact on the Chinese archaeology and history. It is a proof that in the Zhou Dynasty, the emperors had 6 horses to drive their chariots; the vassals 5 horses; the ministers 4 horses; scholar-bureaucrats 3 horses; scholar-officials 2 horses and Common People 1 horse, a kind of strict etiquette formed in Zhou Dynasty, which had been only recorded in ancient books before it was discoved underground in 2002. So the number of the horses indicated the rank and identity of the nobles.