Loyang

pinyin: luò yáng) is a city in Henan province, China. Its GDP per capita was ¥13845 (ca. US$1670) in 2003, ranked no. 152 among 659 Chinese cities.

History

Located on the central plain of China, Luoyang is one of the seven ancient capitals of China.

The original city was constructed by Zhougong (周公) in the 11th century BC and, thus, named Chengzhou (成周). It became the capital of Zhou Dynasty since 770 BC. The city was destroyed in a civil war in 510 BC and rebuilt the next year at the request of the king.

In AD 25, Luoyang became the capital of Eastern Han Dynasty. Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty were also established in Luoyang. For several centuries, Luoyang was the gravity center of China. The end of Jin Dynasty, however, brought total destruction to the capital city.

In 68, White Horse Temple (白馬寺), the first Buddhist temple in China, was founded here. The temple still exists, albeit the architecture is of later origin, mainly from the 16th century.

In 493 the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital from Datong to Luoyang and started the construction of the artificial Longmen Caves. More than 30,000 Buddhist images from the time of this dynasty have been found in the caves.

Cultural Sites

The Longmen Grottoes were listed by the UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites in November 2000. White Horse Temple is located 12km east of the modern town. Guanlin is a series of temples that have been built in honor of a hero of the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu, close to the grottoes to the south of the city. China's only tombs museum, the Luoyang Ancient Tombs Museum is situated north of the modern town. Luoyang Museum is in the center of town.

Luoyang is also famous for a special soup diet called