Luoyang

Located in the western part of Henan Province, divided into one city, eight counties and six districts, Luo yang encompasses 15,492 square kilometres, with a total population of 6.16 million, of whom 1.4 million live in the city. The city proper covers an area of 544 square kilometres. Luoyang boasts a history of nearly 5,000 years. It has served as the political, economic and cultural centre of China on a number of occasions throughout China's long history. The city is one of the seven ancient capitals of China. Archaeologists have confirmed that Luoyang was the capital during the reigns of 96 emperors in 13 dynasties such as Xia, Shang, the Western Zhou, the Eastern Zhou, Eastern Han, Cao Wei, Western Jin, Northern Wei, Sui, Tang, Later Liang, Later Tang and Later Jin over a period of 1,529 years. Luoyang served as a capital the longest in time and for the most of dynasties. The city's long history as a centre of China's public life has left it with a rich cultural heritage.
As a famous historical and cultural city, Luoyang in recent years has tried to attract more domestic and overseas tourists with its splendid culture and distinctive features of the ancient capital. Today, there are eight major historical and cultural sites under state protection, 54 under provincial protection and 1,074 under municipal and county protection. The precious cultural relics unearthed totally more than 400,000 pieces. Up to now, the number of cultural relics exhumed in Luoyang accounted for one-third of the total cultural relics discovered in Henan Province. Therefore Luoyang is crowned the underground treasure house of cultural relics.
The Longmen Grottoes, one of the most famous sets of grottoes in China, is a treasure house of Buddhist culture and art. The Baima (White Horse) Temple was the first Buddhist temple established by the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) government after Buddhism was introduced into China. Mangshan Mountain, located in the city's suburbs, has the largest number of imperial mausoleums, the oldest dating back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC). It is also home to China's first ancient mausoleums museum. The world's first museum of ancient tombs was set up here.
Luoyang boasts many beautiful natural scenic spots. To the north, there is the Yellow River-the mother river of the Chinese nation, the scenic Xiaolangdi Reservoir and the tomb of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25-220) .To the south, there is the Baiyun State Forest Park, a limestone cave in the Jiguan Mountain, Shaolin martial arts, is located in the southern part of Luoyang, along with the Jiuguanshan Caves. In addition, Luoyang has taken advantage of its peony culture to promote tourism and accelerate economic growth. With a cultivation history of more than 1,500 years, the city has over 600 varieties of peony which is in full blossom in a blaze of color. Since 1983, the Luoyang peony fair is held annually to attract millions of Chinese and overseas tourists for sightseeing and business people for trade talks. In order to turn Luoyang into the country's excellent tourist city, it has promoted the construction of infrastructure to improve tourism services. And measures have been adopted to improve the environment of some major scenic spots. Luoyang is a very important communication hub in central part of China. Two railway trunk lines, Lianyungang-Lanzhou Railway and Jiaozuo-Zhicheng Railway cross in the city. Zhengzhou-Luoyang Expressway, China Highway 310 and China highway 207 form a highway network and two expressways industrial city. It has nurtured six key industries, such as petrochemicals, machinery and electronics, metallurgy, construction materials, textile and food. Luoyang is known as the place where China's west and east meet. With the country's implementation of the western development program, Luoyang is expected to become a hot place for overseas investment.