Thanh you for the magnificent video. I am a Chinese woman from Malaysia.I am too old to travel to this beautiful part of China. I enjoy watching your video and hoping to see more.
Beautiful 😍. I can’t wait until I retire and go to China to live then I can really indulge myself in travelling around and visiting places like this 👍👍👍
Are you teaching archaeology or Chinese history at the Uni? ;) That's a great tour of the Longmen Buddhist Grottoes, very interesting! Really like the views @ 2:45, 4:15, 4:24, 7:48. Spectacular!
In 2008 I went to Yungang Shiku and Maiji- These are both amazing too - But looking at your Vid of Longmen Im sorry I never went there - Def the biggest and Probably the Best
Hello Nick if we ever get the chance to go to China the Buddhist grottoes in northern China would be somewhere we would love to visit. thanks very much for sharing this with us. it truly is something else. Stay safe Love and Light Sarah and Glenn
You skipped a lot of horrifying parts about Empress Wu. :D but yes, she was a great empress. There were actually many female leaders controlled the whole country in Chinese history, but she was the only one who was brave and smart enough to claim that title.
Yeh, the first time i visited was 2008, and then again in 2015. There have been a few changes, but the caves and sculptures remain as beautiful as ever
@@nickinchina2552 there's another one in DaTong ShanXi. Call YuGang Grottoes. Since you are a history fan, you should go to DaTong ShanXi. Lots of historical sites as well. Like the hanging temple.
In the morning of watching your this particular video with great interest, I came across an article in Chinese in which a Chinese poem indirectly related to Wu ZeTian(武则天)is mentioned as below: 《黄台瓜辞》 种瓜黄台下,瓜熟子离离.一摘使瓜好,再摘令瓜稀,三摘尚云可,摘绝抱蔓归。 *It is too difficult for me to translate into English. The person, who composes it in exile, is said to eventually get killed by his biological mother, Wu ZeTian, for the power struggle in the royal family, after the poem comes to her attention. With this poem, the poet probably intends to advise her mum to put the wellbeing of her family members above the power/throne. But unfortunately she takes it in the wrong/opposite way: she is under the belief that his sun criticizes her. Through this sad story, you can see that (or why) she is a notorious empress for many native Chinese although she has the great skills to run the empire. Source: 揭秘唐朝章怀太子李贤死于四川巴中之谜 送交者: 炫笔伏逼 于 2021-01-04 22:32 章怀太子李贤,武则天所生第二个儿子,唐高宗李治的第六子,二十岁成为高宗所立的第三个皇太子。 被废为庶民,幽禁一段时间后流放巴州,今天四川省巴中市。 李贤为人十分有文才,有感兄(已登上太子位的哥哥李弘)死弟(唐中宗李显)废,自己遭贬,于是在巴州作了一首《黄台瓜辞》。 据说因写了这首著名诗,他的生母武则天竟派丘神绩赶赴巴州赐李贤自尽,死时二十九岁。
Before the founding of new China, Beijing, Luoyang, Nanjing and Xi'an were all considered as capitals. These four cities are all cities with a long history
Yes, prime of these was the Buddhist statues of Bamiyan and as soon as it was blown up, they were invaded by the United States and their administration was destroyed i.e. the Taliban. Unfortunately they are still running around.
The Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi Province you mentioned in the vid are truly worth visiting. Incidentally, it is annoying for the voice of warning people from touching statues, but there are too many visitors, even few bad eggs touch, the damage would be beyond repair. I have to admit that a large portion of the "bad eggs" are Chinese.
Another one of your masterpieces love the way you added history and explains why most of these extraordinary artworks were damaged. Your channel is amazing thanks from London, l have a two years visa to visit China but sadly it is impossible to travel now. Thanks again
As usual, I love your videos. I rely on you to "travel". Like the style of your videos. Keep doing this so we get to see more places :-) Hopefully I can go there one day.
i went there when i was a kid. then later(well that's couple years ago) I visited mogao caves & Yungang Grottoes. So the one in the hill is the only one I haven't visited yet. they all look quite different and have their own charms.
Nick I just found your channel and totally impressed! I’ve been in the UK for four years and sometimes miss my hometown Xi’an. Glad that watching your vids helps sooth my nostalgia and take me tour around China(many places I haven’t set my foot on). I might suggest you film something related to the food culture in Xi’an (yeah I admit I just miss them) take care 祝好
People should start a petition requesting that the constant PA to visitors be stopped. It's such a mood damper to say the least. I think visitors should register before they enter the site, or through their phones, and be PRE-educated about all that is prohibited while there.
Hi! Glad you enjoyed it! It is a big place and needs at least a few hours. Ideally you go to see it in the morning and then spend the afternoon in Luoyang which is a pretty nice city 😎
I went to there in 2018. The guide told a story. Longmen means “Dragon Gate”. 2600 years before Longmen Buddhist Grottoes was built , the dragon gate had not yet been excavated. The water flow here was blocked by Longmen Mountain, and a large barrier lake was in the south of the mountain. Many carps in the Yellow River swam to Longmen and were blocked by mountains. The leader of the carps, the biggest red carp, jumped into the sky many times. Finally, it crossed the Longmen Mountain, fell into the barrier lake in the south of the mountain, and became a Azure Dragon. Other carps also tried but all failed, and left black scars on their heads. Until nowadays, carps in Yellow River still have black scars on their heads.
There are story where it was said that in one of the Wu Zhe Tian (The one and only Chinese Lady Emperor who challenged the Norm) past life, she mimic people giving Buddha food and gave Buddha some sands when she was a child. Because of her kindness, she was awarded the life of Wu Zhe Tian. Buddhism believe that you tends to go back to Buddhism in every of your incarnation if your faith is in his teaching.
It is such a pleasure to watch you video, hope one day, I can follow you step to visit these magnificent historic sites, big thumb up for you excellent work!
You are the only one I know who really knows a lot history and cultures about all the places you visited. Most people just heard it, photo it and go. They made trips like this boring and meaningless. Nice sharing! Stay safe.
OMG, Nick the Buddhist grottoes are brilliant and what a view facing the river. It is so clear and clean. I am not sure how they have in a sense perverted the belief as the original intention of the founder of the "faith," intended his beliefs and philosophies to be a guidance for a way of live and not something to pray to. Nevertheless, the religiosity of the statues are brilliant and like you said it is no less awe inspiring and also had withstood the test of time including war, conquests and theft. Yes, it was the fashion at that time to steal artifacts across the world, prime being the Elgin Marbles. Was at the British Museum and witnessed many of these artifacts from across the world. But there is another school of thought that these artifacts being housed in the BM is good as it would not have been destroy otherwise. There is another travesty which is the Buddhist statue at Bamiyan destroyed by the jihadists of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Love your videos and please bring us more of this as such will be the future of travel instead of flying solo everywhere to witness history.
Thank you Nick, for another amazing video along with your knowledge of Chinese history. Absolutely you need to go to visit Da Tong carvings in Shanxi. You will like it. Keep traveling and thank you for taking us with you.
Amazing and very educative! I believe you have already visited at least 3 of "four grottos"(some doesnt count Maijishan which makes it "three grottos"). Are you planning on visiting the last one Yungang grotto? It has some interesting structure that other three dont share.