“Where are they from?”

Staring at people is an acceptable pastime in China. We are oddities in Zhengzhou and probably in Henan Province in general, so all eyes are on us.

“啊，一个老外! Hello!”

Yes, a foreigner. That’s what I hear all day long when I walk in the street. We were even asked to pose for pictures, much to Mark’s surprise. I wasn’t particularly shocked—I must be in random strangers’ photo albums already because, in the early 2000s, I was often asked to hold random Chinese babies and smile for the picture.

But this time, I’m staring at a group of four guys who are boarding the train to Luoyang with us. They are not Chinese. Where could they be from?

Forgive my curiosity. This is the first time I’m seeing foreigners in Henan. I’m staring at them too. And the Chinese passengers around us are doing both—staring at them, staring at us.

I manage to get closer and glance at their passport. Uzbekistan! Cool.

After we established that we had seen most of Zhengzhou, we decided to go on two-day trips to the interesting cities of Luoyang and Kaifeng.

Luoyang is among the oldest cities in China and one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. We wanted to see the Longmen Grottoes, 12 kilometres south of Luoyang. Over a one-kilometre stretch, more than 2,300 caves and niches carved into the steep limestone cliffs house 100,000 Buddhist stone statues created during the late Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties (316-907). The tallest one stands at an impressive 17 metres!

The UNESCO site was stunning but it was just too hot to explore the city of Luoyang properly. We ended up at McDonald’s for air-con and ice cream, then we took the train back to Zhengzhou.