Hi, I am back to my hometown, the place I grew up and one of the cities I am most familiar with (Shanghai is the other).
Industrial City
More than 50% of the city was built after 1949. The city quickly became an immigration city after the first 5 years of the New China. 10+ extremely huge factories were built in 5 years with millions of people migrating from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taiyuan and Shenyang. For example, the First Tractor Group employees 60,000 people and they came to the city together. The population of the city grows from 400,000 to 6 million quickly due the immigration. It is a piece of history hard to reproduce at any place in the world.
Look at the Jian Xi District, where most factories were built. There is still a lot of buildings reflecting the history. There are two statues of Chairman Mao in the city. Others have been pulled down in the last ten years.
© Jian Shuo Wang. The statue of Chairman Mao before the Luoyang No. 1 Tractor Factory
This statue was planned to be removed in the last decade but the factor workers gathered and protsted agaist the proposal. The deep feelings with Mao was still in their hearts. So it was kept at the gate of the Luoyang No. 1 Tractor Factory. I am very happy to see the statue is there. No mater whether it was a good idea to build up the same statue everywhere in the country, it is right to keep some sense of history and don’t destroy all at the same time.
© Jian Shuo Wang.
Above is another statue at the entrance of another factory in Luoyang. I got out of the taxi and took a picture with it (below):
© Jian Shuo Wang
Beautiful City
I love the green tree covered streets in Luoyang. The streets are wide (relative to the current traffic volume) and beautiful. Look at the Zhong Zhou West Rd. in the picture below.
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© Jian Shuo Wang. The Zhong Zhou West Rd.
© Jian Shuo Wang
Below is one of my favorite road. The tall trees have formed a green cave and the cave for the single pass road. There is another “cave” for the lane to the opposite direction. The Xiyuan Rd. extended westward for several kilometers.
© Jian Shuo Wang
Below is the tower of the Luoyang No. 1 Tractor Factory. I see people are very curious about the small white boxes on the wall. Your guess is right. They are Aircons. The Jianxi district of Luoyang is made up this Russian style buildings. You can find this kind of nice building along the long Zhouzhou West Road. They look very nice even in the recent years. The Aircons do deface the facade of the building.
© Jian Shuo Wang
Luoyang was also infected by McDonald’s (virus) as any other cities.
© Jian Shuo Wang
Accient Luoyang
Luoyang was the capital of more than 13 dynasties in China. Due to continuous wars, the old city has been almost removed from the horizontal. Recently, a gate was rebuilt according its original design. Here is the gate, Liing Gate (丽京门).
© Jian Shuo Wang
© Jian Shuo Wang
© Jian Shuo Wang
© Jian Shuo Wang
© Jian Shuo Wang
© Jian Shuo Wang
Below is the West Street of the accident Luoyang city.
© Jian Shuo Wang
Luoyang Railway Station
© Jian Shuo Wang
P.S. This article was updated by Jian Shuo Wang on May 7, 2004. More description of the pictures were added.
