hanging temple II

Datong and Xi'an

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April 20th 2006
Arrived in Datong, 7 hours on a train west of Beijing near the Great Wall. Went on a day trip to the Yungang Caves and Hanging Temple. The Yungang caves are a set of Buddhist grottoes caved into the side of a sandstone cliff built around 400 AD. The Hanging Monastery (or named in Chinese "Temple Suspended in the Void") is anchored to the cliff walls with wooden beams set into the rock. The tou ... read more

Asia » China » Shanxi » Datong

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For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more