Luoyang One Day Tour: Longmen Grottoes & White Horse Temple

Reading Guideline:

Luoyang Tour Itinerary
Longmen Grottoes
White Horse Temple

Luoyang Tour Itinerary

In this day tour, you will visit Luoyang attractions, Longmen Grottoes in the morning and White Horse Temple in the afternoon. Tour time: go to Longmen Grottoes at 08:00, and have a four hours tour in there, then have a lunch, next go to White Horse Temple and arrive at about 14:00, and end the tour at 17:00. If you have more time you could go to Luoyang Old Street, where you can taste local traditional food and snacks, and buy some handcraft. If you come to Luoyang from Zhengzhou for a day tour, you might take a high speed train arriving Luoyang at about 08:00 or 09:00, and delay this itinerary for one or two hours.

About Luoyang city transport, to budget tourists, I recommend public bus to you, take No. 53 public bus to Longmen Grottoes, and take No. 60 public bus and transfer to No. 58 public bus to White Horse Temple. After today’s tour, if you want to go to Luoyang Old Street, located in Zhongzhou east road, you could take No. 58, No. 801, or No. 56 public bus. If you want to go to Luoyang Railway Station, take No. 56 or No. 81 public bus. In the case of going to Luoyang Longmen Railway Station, you may take No. 58 public bus, then transfer to No. 33 or No. 66 public bus.

Luoyang location: Luoyang is located in the Henan province, China, an it is in the middel of China, close to Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, and Wuhan. Xi'an to Luoyang and Xi'an to Longmen Grottoes : hight speed train is recommended

Longmen Grottoes

►Longmen Grottoes Facts

Longmen Grottoes, or Longmen Caves(龙门石窟) is an art treasury of stone carvings and Buddhist art, and listed as World Heritage, a five-A tourist attraction, and one of the top four grottoes in China. It is made in two mountains in the riverside of Yihe river, Longmen mountain and Xiangshan mountain, featured with life-like stone carvings. Longmen Grottoes is first built in the 5th century, and completed after over 400 years. Such a long construction makes Longmen Grottoes have a large scale, 1,000 kimeters long from the south to the north. So far, it has over 2000 grottoes, over 10,000 sculptures, and 2,800 stone inscriptions, but some of those artistic works are not in good shapes due to wind erosion and damages made in war time.

Longmen Grottoes is divided into four parts: Xishan Grottoes, Dongshan Grottoes, Xiangshan Temple, and Baiyuan, and each part is composed of many small attractions. Xiangshan Temple, Baiyuan and Dongshan Grottoes is in Xiangshan mountain, Xishan Grottoes is Longmen mountain.

►Longmen Grottoes Travel Tips

Longmen Grottoes Entrance Fee / Ticket: 100 yuan for an entrance ticket to Xishan Grottoes, Dongshan Grottoes, Xiangshan Temple, and Baiyuan. 10 yuan for shuttle bus inside the tourist attraction, and 25 yuan for a boat.

Longmen Grottoes Opening Hours

	1st Feburary-31st March	1st April-7th October	8th October-31st October	1st November-31st January
Ticketing	08:00-17:00	08:00-17:30	08:00-17:00	08:00-16:00
Close at	18:00	18:30	18:00	17:00

Tour Guide: 150 yuan and 240 yuan for an English speaking tour guide, and 30 yuan for an audio guide, with a deposit of 100 yuan

Sightseeing Route: Xishan Grottoes→ Dongshan Grottoes→ Xiangshan Temple→Baiyuan

►How to get to Longmen Grottoes

Longmen Grottoes is located in Luolong district, about 8 kilometers away from Luoyang downtown, and you might take a bus or take a taxi to get there.

Bus. Near Longmen Grottoes, there is a bus stop, Longmen Grottoes bus stop, and No. 53, No. 60, No. 71, No. 81, No. 99, and No, 167 public buses are available to get to Longmen Grottoes. No. 53 public bus has Longmen Grottoes as its terminal stop, and No. 81 public bus is from Luoyang Railway Station(洛阳火车站) to Longmen Grottoes. From Luoyang Longmen Railway Station to Longmen Grottoes, No. 71, and No. 167 public buses are available.
Taxi. Take a taxi to Longmen Grottes, wherever you are, and it is convenient and fast, but has a higher price than public bus.

White Horse Temple

►White Horse Temple Facts

White Horse Temple address: White Horse Temple(白马寺) is located in No. 6, Luobai road, Baima town, Luolong district, Luoyang, and 23 kilometers away from Luoyang downtown, 13 kilometers away from Luoyang East Railway Station, and 26 kilometers away from Longmen Grottoes.

White Horse Temple history: it is first built in 68 BC, and has a history of over 1,900 years, and it is the first temple built by government since its coming into China, regarded as the ancestor of China Buddhism.

White Horse Temple architecture: White Horse Temple faces to the south, covering an area of 40,000 square meters, with its main buildings standing in the central axis, such as Hall of Heavenly Kings, and Hall of Giant Buddha. It gets from two horse stone sculptures inside the temple, made in the Song Dynasty(960 AD-1279 AD), 1.75 meters high and 2.2 meters long. Besides, there are over 40 ancient stele inscriptions and some Buddha sculptures, of great value.

►White Horse Temple Travel Tips

White Horse Temple Opening Hours: 07:30-18:00

White Horse Temple Entrace Fee / Ticket: 35 yuan for a through ticket to White Horse Temple, Qiyun Tower, and Exhibition of World Buddha Halls

►How to get to White Horse Temple

Bus. No. 56, No, 58, and No. 87 public bus. Take No. 56 public bus at Luoyang Railway Station(洛阳火车站) and get off at White Horse Temple bus stop.
Taxi: if you are not in a tight budget, you could take a taxi to White Horse Temple.
From Longmen Grottoes to White Horse Temple, there is not bus go to White Horse Temple directly, so you need to transfer, like No. 53→No. 58/No. 56, or No. 60→No. 58, or No. 81→No. 58. A ticket fare of public bus is 1.5 yuan or 2 yuan.

►What to see and what to do in White Horse Temple

See the old buildings, and significant sculptures, especially those Buddha sculptures.
See those stele inscriptions, and some of them are written by great calligraphers.
Still there are lots of Buddhist scriptures, and learn philosophy from them.

How to visit White Horse Temple

First go from Mountain Gate(山门), then you can see Bell Tower and Drum Tower in the two sides of the central axis. After this, go to Hall of Heavenly Kings and see the four sculptures of four Heavenly Kings.
Next, go to Great Buddha Hall which houses Buddha and have some sculptures, and other halls in the two sides. Then go to Mahavita Hall(大雄殿) and Reception Hall(接引殿)， and the back part.
In the last go to exhibition of World Buddha Halls, Thailand Buddha Hall and India Buddha Hall, and then end this day tour.