Hanfu Photo Spots in Luoyang: Yingtianmen, Luoyi Ancient City, Longmen
The three spots, and how they differ
Luoyang’s hanfu photography runs on three locations, and they are not interchangeable. Yingtianmen is architecture at night, lit from below. Luoyi Ancient City is a reconstructed street with water and lanterns, free to enter and the easiest of the three. The Longmen Grottoes are a UNESCO World Heritage site where the photographs are a by-product of being somewhere genuinely old.
The mistake people make is treating them as three stops on one route. They are two different evenings and one afternoon, and trying to do all three in costume on the same day is how you end up with a rental deadline and no photographs.
Before any of this, you need the costume. The rental guide covers the price tiers, the deposit and the return clock. What follows is where to take it.
Yingtianmen: the gate with the light show
Yingtianmen is the reconstructed south gate of the Sui and Tang imperial city, and it is the single most photographed structure in Luoyang after dark. The building is a modern reconstruction on the original site, which is worth knowing before you go: what you are photographing is a faithful piece of architecture rather than a surviving one.
The setup is simple. The gate tower opens a tower ticket, around ¥60 with a half-price concession, and the north square in front of it is free. The free part is where most of the photography happens, because the 3D light show is projected onto the gate itself and you do not need to go up to watch it.
Two things to plan around. The gate lights up at about 19:00, so arriving at six gets you a blue-hour frame and a place to stand. And the tower entry is a real-name reservation through the Suiyang Luoyang City WeChat account, with no on-site ticket sales, so book before you travel rather than turning up.
The reason Yingtianmen matters to hanfu specifically is the light. It is warm, it comes from below, and it turns a red robe gold. The best angle is from the north square looking south, which is exactly where everyone else stands, so go early or accept that your frame will contain strangers.
One correction worth making, because it circulates in English. Some international booking pages list Yingtianmen as closed to visitors in hanfu. That is wrong. Visitors of any nationality can wear hanfu inside the complex. The rule that changed is a different one: the city used to run a promotion letting people in free if they arrived in costume, and that no longer operates. You pay like everyone else.
Luoyi Ancient City: free, booked, and best after dark
Luoyi Ancient City is the one that most people end up at, and it is free. Free is not the same as unbooked, though, and this is where international visitors get turned away.
Entry is a real-name reservation, made through the Luoyi Ancient City WeChat account or the Xiangyou Luoyang mini-program. The site caps admissions at around 30,000 tickets a day, released in five time slots, and on public holidays the slots close a day ahead. The reservation costs nothing. There is nothing for a tout to sell you, which is worth remembering when someone offers to sort it out for a fee.
The park is a national 4A scenic area, open from 09:00 to 22:30 with last admission at 22:00. It lights up at 18:30 and the switch-on is the event: the whole street goes from grey to gold in a few minutes, and the lake turns into a mirror.
Practical advice on timing. Late afternoon is the sweet spot. Arrive around four, shoot the architecture and the bridges in daylight while the site is half empty, eat something in the food lanes, then be in position at half six for the lights. By seven the bridges are queues and every railing has three photographers on it.
You do not have to buy anything to photograph here. Entry is free, there is no spending requirement, and the staff do not move people on for shooting in the public lanes. Metro Line 1 has a station named Luoyi Ancient City, with the A1 exit nearest the gate.
Longmen Grottoes: the one that is not really a backdrop
The Longmen Grottoes are the best thing in Luoyang and the most awkward of the three for costume photography, for reasons that are about respect as much as rules.
The ticket is ¥90 and covers everything: the West Hill caves, the East Hill caves, Xiangshan Temple and Bai Garden. Day opening runs 08:00 to 18:00 from March to October, with ticket sales stopping at 17:30 and admission closing at 18:00, and 08:00 to 17:00 from November to February. Since 30 March 2026 there is also a night session, sold separately at ¥90, covering the West Hill caves and Xiangshan Temple only, with tickets sold from 17:30 to 19:30, admission from 18:00 to 20:00 and the site cleared at 21:00.
That night session is the reason to come here in costume. The lit caves against a dark cliff are the shot. But the night ticket is separate, it does not include the East Hill, and it is booked by real-name reservation online, with the only in-person sales at the ticket centre in the north-west service area.
If you only have the day, come in the last two hours before closing. The tour groups have gone, the light on the west cliff is coming in low, and you can walk the East Hill side, which looks back across the river at the west cliff and is where the postcard frame comes from.
What you are not allowed to do
The Longmen Grottoes have real rules and they are enforced.
Inside the caves, flash photography and tripods are banned. Tripods are allowed at the East Hill ritual platform, which is outdoors, so if you have brought one that is where it can be used. Commercial photography requires prior approval from the site administration, and touts soliciting photo shoots on site are not permitted.
What that does not mean is that you cannot take your own photographs. Ordinary visitors shooting themselves and each other are not interfered with, and the staff distinguish clearly between a person with a phone and a commercial operation with a lighting rig. Behave like the first and you will be fine.
At Yingtianmen and Luoyi Ancient City the rules are lighter, but the same logic applies: these are working tourist sites in the evening, and a tripod set up across a bridge at seven in the evening will attract a staff member. Use a small one, or none.
Getting between the three
Yingtianmen and Luoyi Ancient City are one stop apart on Metro Line 1, and the stations are named after each, so the two are effectively a single evening. Walking between them takes about twenty minutes through the old city streets, which is the better option because the streets themselves are worth photographing.
The Longmen Grottoes are the outlier. There is no metro station at the grottoes, whatever a map may suggest. The route is Line 2 to Baliitang and then a bus, or a taxi for around ¥20 to ¥30 from the old city. Budget 30 to 40 minutes each way. If you are coming from Luoyang Longmen railway station instead, the grottoes are 4 to 5 km away, which is a short taxi ride; the station comparison explains which station to use.
Timing the light and the crowds
Three windows, and they are worth planning around.
The first is the hour before sunset at Luoyi Ancient City, roughly 16:00 to 17:30 in the shoulder seasons. Daylight, half-empty lanes, and enough light to shoot without a flash. This is the most productive hour of the day.
The second is the switch-on, 18:30 at Luoyi Ancient City and about 19:00 at Yingtianmen. It is the most dramatic ten minutes and the most crowded. If you want the lights and the space, you have to choose, because you cannot have both.
The third is the Longmen night session from 18:00, which is a different kind of evening entirely: cold stone, dark river, and far fewer people than the old city.
Avoid the middle of the day in summer. Luoyang in July is humid and bright, the costume is heavy, and the light flattens the architecture. Nobody looks good at two in the afternoon in a wig.
A realistic day in costume
Rent in the late morning. Use the costume for the old city in daylight, which is when the architecture photographs best and when you can still move.
Return the costume before the shop closes if your rental window ends that evening, or extend it at the counter if it does not. The rental clock is the constraint on everything else, and the rental guide sets out what the extension costs.
Then go back out in ordinary clothes for the lights. This is the part people resist, and it is the right answer: the switch-on at 18:30 is a crowd event, and shooting it in a rented costume with a deadline is stressful rather than fun. Watch it, eat in the food lanes, and take your own photographs of the lit street with the phone.
If you have a second evening, spend it at the Longmen night session. It is the best photography of the three and it is the one that needs a booked ticket.
What it costs, all in
The locations themselves are cheap, and the money goes on the costume.
Luoyi Ancient City is free. Yingtianmen is free to photograph from the north square, or around ¥60 to go up the tower. The Longmen Grottoes are ¥90 in the day, and ¥90 again for the separate night session if you do both.
Add the rental and you have the day. A costume-only rental at the ¥69 end plus a free district and a ¥90 grottoes ticket is a full day of photography for under ¥200, which is a hard price to beat anywhere in China. The expensively produced version, with styling and a photographer, is a different budget entirely and buys you the finished images rather than better locations.
If Luoyang is part of a longer trip, the four ancient capitals rail route sequences it with Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Anyang, and the comparison with Xi’an is worth reading if you are doing both cities and only want to do the costume thing once.
Frequently asked questions
Where are the best places to photograph hanfu in Luoyang?
Three, and they are different kinds of location. Yingtianmen gives you a floodlit Tang gate tower. Luoyi Ancient City gives you a free reconstructed street with water, bridges and lanterns. The Longmen Grottoes give you carved cliff faces, but they are a heritage site rather than a backdrop and the rules there are stricter.
Can you wear hanfu inside Yingtianmen?
Yes, and the restriction you may have read about does not exist. Visitors of any nationality can wear hanfu inside the Yingtianmen complex. What has changed is the promotion: the city used to let people in free if they arrived in costume, and that offer is no longer running, so you pay the tower ticket like everyone else.
Do you need to book Luoyi Ancient City in advance?
Yes. Entry is free but it is a real-name reservation through the Luoyi Ancient City WeChat account, or through the Xiangyou Luoyang mini-program, and the site caps admissions at roughly 30,000 tickets a day released in five time slots. On public holidays book a day ahead. Do not buy from touts; there is nothing to buy, since the ticket itself costs nothing.
What time do the lights come on in Luoyang?
Luoyi Ancient City switches on at 18:30 and Yingtianmen at about 19:00. That half hour is the reason the districts fill up in the evening rather than at opening. If you want the lanterns lit and space to move, arrive before the switch-on, not after it.
Is the Longmen Grottoes good for hanfu photographs?
Partly. The cliff faces and the river make strong backdrops, but you are in a World Heritage site. Flash and tripods are banned inside the caves, tripods are allowed at the East Hill ritual platform, and commercial shoots need approval. Personal photography by ordinary visitors is not restricted, and the East Hill side looks back at the west cliff, which is the shot most people want.
How do you get between the three spots?
Yingtianmen and Luoyi Ancient City are both on Metro Line 1, one stop apart, with stations named after each. The Longmen Grottoes have no metro station: take Line 2 to Baliitang and change to a bus, or take a taxi for around ¥20 to ¥30. Budget 30 to 40 minutes each way between the old city and the grottoes.
