2 Ways to Put a Cliff to Good Use

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We never really thought we would be able make it Datong as a day trip- it's 400 km from Beijing and the terrain is on the mountainous side. They said it was too far, too cold, not enough transport links, etc. We knew better and are living proof that where there is a will there is a way. We took an overnight train (8 hours) from Beijing to Datong, hooked up with another pair of tourists and shared a car around the sights and then shared a taxi back to Beijing (4 hours) with some Chinese girl arriving at 8:30 pm. You should have seen the look on the receptionist's mug when I walked back into our hostel after only being away 24 hours.

So....what is the beef on Datong I hear you say. Cave Temples and a Hanging Monestary. We are into our last days in China and really felt the need to see something different so here is an oportunity to feast our eyes on something monumental. The Yungang Caves are a set of Buddhist grottos carved into the side of a sandstone cliff built around 400 AD. First impressions were not great. It looks a lot like any other cliff but with a few holes in. What is inside those holes, however, really was quite impressive. There are huge carved buddhas and pagodas and all the walls are covered in carved images. It is hard to express the scale of these caves - not as big as Dafo but pretty big! The Hanging Monestary was something I really wanted to see but was actually a bit of a let down. Yes, it is suspended precariously over a sheer drop but it quite tiny and plain looking close up, and not as high up as I thought. Still, a wierd bloody place to build a monestary.

It's funny how we run into people we have met elsewhere before. If we are on a long boring bus ride and get chatting with some other travellers the rule is that if we get on well we will be heading in opposite directions. But, if they get on our nerves and we have to talk just out of politeness we will bump into them everywhere we go for the following weeks. There were some Germans (yes, it is a cliche that but oh so true) in Lijiang who turned out to be total "two-sheds" - that is, if I say I have a shed they say they have two, you know the type. Every thing they had done was either cheeper, more beautiful, more difficult, etc etc. I could have killed them after about half and hour. Then they were walking Tiger Leaping Gorge the same day as us and of course caught us up and did it quicker. Then they turned up in Datong. This time we were prepared. Lara sneakily got them to tell us first how much they had payed for their tour and then we beat it by a couple of quid. Victory! You should have seen their faces. They looked like they'd just lost a war or the world cup final or something. Gutted. Obviously we had lied about the price we payed but they do not need to know that. Speaking of this, in Sydney we have just bumped into the girl who we did this tour with and she was with a DIFFERENT man this time. The world really is a small place. Despite the chances being slim, ie had we walked a little bit slower, caught a later tube or decided to go to a different bus stop... we always meet the same people somewhere else. In Xian we bumped into Chris from Malaysia in an underpass and we thought he had gone home weeks ago. Fiona in Phnom Penh. Although some places you expect to meet up again such as in Malaysia where travelling on your own is easy as you can all catch up again at the next stop, once you cross the border into Thailand it is anyone's guess. Very random.

I wonder who we will meet in Beijing.........................

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