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Looking down into the imperial courtyard. It's hard to imagine how this looked back in its heyday, but the magic's still here.

... and from the top looking back down the imperial path into Kaifeng in the distance. It was quite warm this day but up here there was a beautiful cool breeze blowing.

It's quite messy here - the slick tourist operation that Shaolin has become has not reached Kaifeng. There are the usual tourist wares, but it's mainly aimed at domestic visitors. International visitors like me get stared at, and have random kids coming up and saying "Hello how are you I am fine" in carefully practiced English. It's all good natured and the stares you get are always curious stares. A smile and wave is always returned.

#kaifeng #imperial palace #china #henan

At the bottom of some steep steps. There are 72 steps, apparently, which is a significant and auspicious number in Chinese folklore - or at least one folklore (there are so many traditions).

This is inside the imperial palace front gate, looking down the imperial avenue toward the main imperial complex at the end. It's pretty awesome.

This is the front of the imperial palace in Kaifeng. There are two Ming dynasty lions (1368 to 1644) out the front. This wide open area was where executions were carried out in times past.

This is Jason. He's a tour guide/rickshaw driver in Kaifeng. The guy speaks English really well (he claims he is self-taught, and I actually do believe him). If you're ever in Kaifeng down near the imperial palace, go looking for him. He's honest, interesting and very good natured. I asked him to smile for the photo, but he was too shy. It's a shame because he was smiling all the rest of the time.

I don't think Kaifeng would have been the same without Jason. The man's a gem.

Also taken just outside where we were having lunch. This guy is selling turtles. They're all alive, and they're not pets. There an awesome looking great big one in the lower left of the shot - you can just make out the shell. It's pretty horrific - and no, we didn't have turtle for lunch.

This shot is from Kaifeng, outside the restaurant where we stopped for lunch. The red stuff on the ground is the remains of firecrackers. You can see this in many places around China as it's a traditional way of celebrating weddings.

Turns out the place we wanted to have lunch was booked out because of the wedding - but we were found a room anyway because we were 'foreigners', as the Chinese like to say. Seriously, people here do know how to take care of visitors. Would not have happened in Australia.

First stop today was Zhengzhou new district and the arts centre, where we visited the Carlos Cruz-Diez colour in space and time exhibition. This image is inside one of the exhibits. What I loved about the exhibition was that you could interact with parts of it - here it's a white room lit with red, green and blue fluoros.

Within the exhibition we discovered dozens of young kids were sprawled across the floor drawing and colouring, using the art works as inspiration. It was the face of an emerging China where parents are beginning to appreciate that education must go beyond the tradition rote learning.

It's not there yet, but today's exhibition suggests we won't have to wait long.

Here is a video of a slow pan around the large statues of the Buddha and his disciples. Hopefully it conveys a sense of the scale. It's something you really have to see to appreciate - an absolute must to visit.

Some more of the grottos. As you can see they're not all huge, but there is so much detail here. Many of the statues have been defaced (literally) which is quite sad, but does not reduce the majesty of the site. Still, I would have loved to see them in their day, all painted and decorated it must have been even more awe-inspiring.

I have not seen much information about the damage, but it seems most of it was done during the late 19th and 20th centuries, with damage being done by people taking treasures from the site (notably the English and later the Japanese during the 1940s) and by deliberate destruction due to civil unrest in the 1940s, and during the cultural revolution (although according to a Chinese friend, damage to the grottos was forbidden).

It's really frustrating to think that these things could survive for hundreds of years (even the newer ones are over 1000 years old) only to be thoughtlessly destroyed by greed, ignorance and arrogance in our own time.

Warrior statue faces - awe-inspiring work.

Two of Buddha's disciples, who protect heaven and temples. These were all carved during the Tang dynasty.

#buddhism #buddha #longmen #grottos

A slight sense of scale.

This one is over 17 meters high. The numbers do not do it justice. This is massive and imposing and incredible.

... and here is a sense of that scale. But this is not the biggest buddha...

#longmen #grottos #luoyang #yi luo #buddha

Off to see the Longmen grottos in Luoyang, once the capital of China. Here's a Buddha in one of the grottos. It's hard to appreciate these statues without a sense of scale. Historically speaking, some of these carvings into the limestone above the Yi river are over 1700 years old. Physically, many are huge...

#longmen #luoyang #grottos #buddha #carvings #yi luo

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