Blogs from Datong, Shanxi, China, Asia - page 4

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Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong November 28th 2008

Hello again, Been to visit our school a couple of times now, as well as another primary school in the coal mining district. I recieved a fantastic welcome with a red carpet, a band and the whole school outside in sub-zero temperatures chanting welcome and waving pom-poms. The staff and the children were really excited to here about Hollins Grundy and I saw some great things going on here. See you on Monday. PS Had a slice of donkey for lunch yesterday - very nice!... read more
Experimental School 2
Experimental School 3
Experimental School 4

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong November 25th 2008

Hello again everyone. This morning I got up at 4.30 and we flew from Beijing to Datong which was an hour's flight. Datong is in Shanxi Province and is a big city famous for it's coal mines. We have been to Yungang Grottoes this morning which have some beautiful statues of Buddha and we will shortly be meeting the people from Datong schools. By the way, the temperature when we arrived this morning was -8 degrees C!... read more
Yungang Grottoes 2
Yungang Grottoes 3
Yungang Grottoes 4

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong August 12th 2008

Datong, the little city of Shanxi province, famous by suspended temple and Yungang cave. The suspended temple was built at the cliff, 1400 years ago, the building main structures were inside the cliff, that way the temple was incredibly firm there, that was a case for architecture study. Inside the temple have 3 religions together, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucius, no matter the building itself or the mix of the religions there, both are very interesting. The Yungang cave, one of the 3 main stone cave in China, completed 1500 years ago, this is much better than Longmen cave, the sculptures of Yungang are more preserved, there register the history of the Buddhism from India to China, besides the art and architecture style, there is a interesting story: some Buddhas' sculptures had a lot of holes, there ... read more
suspended temple 2
secret code
Frame

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong July 9th 2008

I travel to Datong, passing through the huge industrial areas of Northern CHina. This is where much of the country's coal comes from and hence where many of the massive power-stations are. They're a blight on the landscape but, in such a growing, power-hungry country, they've got to put them somewhere. Just West of Datong are the Yungang caves, a huge site of over 51,000 Buddhist carvings in a sand-stone cliff-face. Work began here in 453AD, when Datong was the province's capital, and much of the big stuff has survived well. From here I head 40 miles South-East of Datong to see Xuankong Si - the Hanging Temple. You may have seen pictures of this amazing place, clinging precariously to the side of a canyon wall. The wooden buildings, supported by frighteningly thin wooden poles are ... read more
Yungang Caves
Yungang Caves
Hanging monastery

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong May 23rd 2008

For the sake of one good action one hundred evil ones should be forgotten. DA TONG The girls at the Temple side Guest house in Beijing gave us our train tickets to Da Tong. She told me the ticket clearly said in bold Chinese symbols 'Central' train station and not 'West' train station, she said that any taxi driver would be able to get us to 'Central' in less than 10 minutes. With this in mind we grabbed a cab a full 90 minutes before our train’s departure, just in case, except we headed off in a tummy screaming WESTERLY direction. I sat in the back and kept saying to Stu and his new best friend the non English speaking cab driver “CENTRAL, not WEST where is he going now that sign said West Beijing” Cab ... read more
The Yungang Caves
Train Man
Im the dot in the right hand corner....

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong February 10th 2008

Day two was reserved for the famous hanging monastry, located some 65 km's south east of Datong, and build into the Heng Shan sacred mountain. It's a pretty impressive sight, although very touristy. The weather on this day was absolutely freezing, so my enjoyment of the monastry was tampered a bit by not being able to feel my hands and face. Taking photo's becomes slightly difficult as well, but luckily I didn't drop my camera for a second time. To get to the site, we took a bus from Datong to the town of Hunyuan, where a short taxi drive takes you to the sight. Although it was stiflingly cold, I managed to walk around for what was probably more than an hour. Even walked back a bit along the road to take a shot of ... read more
Hanging monastry.
Snowy mountains.
Hunyuan.

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong February 10th 2008

Lucky for me, the train from Hohhot to Datong only took 4 hours, so that's not too bad. Upon arrival in Datong I sort of immediately knew that I wasn't going to like the city. The Lonely Planet says the following about Datong; Datong isn't going to win any beauty pageants, but who needs good looks when you've got art? And that's very right, the city is just a big industrial coal mine city, (and the taxi drivers don't put their meters down!) whilst the sights around it are amazing. On our first day we decided to visit the Yungang caves, where you can find the earliest buddhist carvings in China. It's pretty amazing how in over 60 years they carved so many statues and other images along a 1 km stretch of sandstone wall. The ... read more
The caves
Roofs at the Yungang caves.
Statue

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong January 16th 2008

Datong has a population of about 3 million people and is a big coal producing region. It served as the capital around 400 AD and did so for about 70 years. You'd think that a city this steeped in history would have loads to see and do, unfortunately this did not prove to be the case. We took the overnight train from Beijing and arrived in at about 7.00 am. We knew what it was we wanted to see and in hindsight we should have just gone and did it in the one day But we were curious as to what Datong had to offer. We loaded into the CITS, sort of travel agents, booked accommodation, our train tickets onwards and a tour for the next day. We did some walking around the city that day ... read more
Datong
Datong
Hanging Monastery

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong December 18th 2007

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong September 5th 2007

I took the overnight train from Beijing to Datong to see the Hanging Monastery and Yungang Caves there. Datong is really just one big industrial town. It is the source of a big portion of China's coal and the city certain smells like it. The odor of coal permeates the air here. When I blew my nose and took a look at what came out, there were black specks of coal dust. I wonder what the life expectancy is for the people who live here. Unfortunately, Datong is more of a norm than an exception. Things like air quality and environment take a backseat to economic development. With the exception of a handful of historical sites, there is not much to do or see in Datong. I chose to take the train out of town on ... read more
Hanging Monastery
Inside Hanging Monastery
Maguo Caves




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