After the Jiankou Great Wall hiking tour in Beijing, Bea and Danny came to meet all of us in our Zhengzhou office. We had a great time with them here, especially the KTV time in the evening. Then we started our trip in Luoyang and Xian.

2018-4-20 Zhengzhou-Luoyang-Xi’an

Today we spent most of the day in Luoyang. Luoyang is famous for having been the capital of 13 dynasties. The city is located on the north bank of the Luohe River and faces the sun, hence its name - Luoyang. First we went to the Longmen Grottoes, one of the four treasure houses of stone carvings in China. You cant ignore its splendour, although it was very crowded when we were there.

After the 2 hour visit to the Longmen Grottoes, we had lunch in a nice local restaurant and then went to the old town of Luoyang. I have never been here before, although I am from Henan province. Its a world Ive never known before. You can buy a lot of local products in Luoyang. It is a little different from the old towns of Pingyao, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-la, not many tourists, most of them are the local people.

In the late afternoon, we took the high speed train to Xi’an, just only 1hr and 40mins. High speed trains change our lives.

2018-4-21 Village tour in Xi’an

Yuan Jia Village is a Guanzhong folk village with snacks, inns, bars and handicrafts, and a shrunken version of the Muslim area in Xian. But I like it better here than there, because there are more locals here than on Hui Street in Xian, which is full of tourists. This is an old village that still has its old buildings, which is much nicer.

In the evening we went to the Muslim area of Xian to experience our night food tour. All you can see is a lot of people coming and going, and most of them are tourists. I think most Xian people go to Yuans village. But because of the central location, it is much easier for customers to come here themselves.

Here I would like to say something about our nice hotel in Xian, which is well located in the city, a few minutes walk from the Bell Tower and 15 minutes walk from the Muslim area. Apart from the hotel manager, all the other staff are deaf and dumb. So it is a good way for us to support them by sending clients there.

After saying goodbye to our dearest Bea in Xian, we started our next trip in Xinjiang province.

By Leena - Charmission Travel