Datong, China

Hi again,
I had to start heading west. The wind of Tibet started to push me forward (when did I become so poetic???). The first stop on the way is Datong, just seven hours away from Beijing. There were no tickets for the sleeper, so I thought that it can't be THAT bad to spend seven hours sitting, even if it was during the night. Well, it wasn't easy, but I made it.
In the morning when the train arrived all the tourists were picked up by the local travel agency who arranges tours to the attractions in the area. They are so well organized and speak such good English, that people really do use them.
A few hours later there were two buses full of tourists going to the two major attractions of the area. With my luck - the AC on the bus didn't work, and it was hot, and after a night of sitting in the train (where the AC didn't work either), it made me very tired...
The first stop was in Xuankong Si, better known as The Hanging Temple. It is very impressive from a distance, and quite a normal small temple from the inside. The temple was built up the cliff because of flooding from the river (that is now gone because of a dam). The most interesting thing about it is that it belongs to all the three major religions in China: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. There is a hall where the main figures of all three are sitting together.
The second (and last) stop was Yungang Caves, a complex of Buddhist caves like the one I saw near Dunhuang. I thought it would be more of the same, but I was wrong. These caves were different. The former caves had mainly wall paintings, while here the caves were covered with sculptures and carvings. It was amazing. The caves were made during a short period of time, around the 5th century, and there only around 50 of them, but unlike the previous visit, here you can walk freely and all the caves are open for visiting.
It looked like they have been working on this forever. There are so many details, so many statues, so many carvings. It was just overwhelming. I didn't know what to picture first. And after I took enough pictures, I went through the caves again just to admire it.
Just to add to the experience - another section of the Great Wall is visible on the top of the caves...
Returned to Datong tired but happy.
The next morning I went to the the center of town to see the local drum tower. I've seen so many of them, and so many that were much more impressive...
Another thing to see there is The Nine Dragon Screen, which used to guard the palace that once stood there. Evil spirits can only walk in straight lines (in case you forgot), so a big wall of dragons in front of the entrance should block their way. The wall is 8 meters high, 45 meters long, and has 9 different dragons made of 426 glazed tiles.
The rest of the day while I was waiting for my train I did what I do a lot lately when I have some time - worked on my blog. That afternoon I took the train further west, to Xi'an.
Until then,
R.

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