Luoyang洛阳

Editor's introduction

Luoyang is not a stopover

Written from two reporting trips, checked against local opening hours in 2026.

Luoyang is the city most travellers mean when they say Henan has three thousand years of history. It was a capital for thirteen dynasties, and the evidence is not behind glass: the Longmen Grottoes run for a kilometre along the Yi River, the White Horse Temple is the first Buddhist temple built in China, and the Sui and Tang city walls sit under the modern streets. Come for the grottoes, stay for the peonies in April and the water banquet at night. Two full days covers Longmen, the old town and the museum quarter; three days lets you add a day trip to Dengfeng or the Xiaolangdi reservoir. High-speed trains from Zhengzhou take about forty minutes, so Luoyang works as a base rather than a stopover.