Wow

Asia
May 24th 2006

Published: March 10th 2010

So we had an almost 6 hour ride by private van towards Datong which is located just on the fringe of Inner Mongolia (which is in China not Mongolia). Beautiful mountains sweeping down to grasslands and remote villages - quite a beautiful ride. At the 6 hour mark we arrived at the Hanging Monastery. I am doing my best to upload some photos now, but if you have to wait until I am home for a decent connection so be it. But let me tell you this - the monastery is indeed hanging on a cliff wall. On stilts. Made of wood. Hanging on a cliff. Did I mention that I don't do heights? Ha! Well I did this one. I managed ok but was absolutely anal about the number of folks they were letting on at one time - and why do the chinese want to grab and shake those stilts that the monastery is attached to the cliff with??

What I would like to know is who exactly had the idea to build this thing. And why. It dates back to the Song dynasty and the carvings inside were breathtaking - the detail is incredible and moreso when

Monastery

you remind yourself that it was all done by hand with pretty primitive tools.

Then off to Datong for overnight. Datong is a very industrial city built on coal mining. Not at all unusual to see a cart loaded with coal, being pulled by a donkey down the street. Great restaurant in the hotel though with a floor that was see through to a pool with gold fish below! Tried lots of weird and wonderful things there, I am not sure I really want to know what they all were.

An early start this morning as we headed to the Yungang Grottoes outside of Datong. Thousands of buddhas carved into caves of various dimensions. Really I am doing a lousy job of explaining a pretty remarkable and peaceful and inspiring site. Where I blew the budget and bought a statue thingy...very very beautiful and I wanted it so I was a lousy negotiator. Plus the van was leaving. Oh well - no doubt I will be looking to find this item in Beijing to see how bad a deal I made😊.

Last stop is coming up and that is Beijing. And the Great Wall. I cannot believe