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Published: April 28th 2008
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Our sleeper train is from the 1950s. Our sleeper car is barely wide enough for 2 narrow cots and a place to walk between them. I was so glad that we had sprung for an extra $40 which is the cost of 2 tickets so we didn’t have to share the compartment. Jack said he was waiting for Sydney Greetstreet to appear and for someone to get murdered. I thought it was kind of an adventure and we were able to sleep for most of the trip. When we arrived in Datong our guide, Peach, was waiting for us. We went to the hotel to shower and have breakfast. It was another huge buffet of all kinds of Chinese dishes, my favorite were small packages of sticky rice and dates wrapped in leaves. Jack was happy because they had eggs and toast. The local specialty is “sliced noodles”. A young man stands behind a very large pot of boiling water. When you order, he picks up a slab of noodle dough, hoists in onto his shoulder and with a special tool he slices pieces of dough into the pot. The noodles are served with either a pork or tomato sauce and
Yungang Grottos
When Datong was the capital, these caves with Buddha were built. Thousands and thousands of Buddhas eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We came to Datong to see the Yungang Grottos. There are about 40 caves that were carved out of sandstone within which Buddhas were carved. The carving and subsequent restoration began in 460 and extended through the Ming Dynasty. The largest cave is 25 meters high and 50 meters wide with a Buddha that is nearly 20 meters tall. Other caves have multiple figures, some have been painted and some are plain. Jack was very happy to unpack his view camera and spent a lot of time with the large Buddha, while Peaches showed me around the rest of the caves. The caves remind me of Petra in Jordan, although they aren’t on the same scale. We spent the entire morning at the caves and by the time we got back to Datong, we stopped for lunch. The restaurant was packed and at the next set of tables were families celebrating a boy’s 12th birthday. It is an important birthday in China and marks the transition to adulthood. The cake was an elaborate 3 story affair with purple, yellow and orange layers on stilts so it was 3 feet high. There was a middle
Rural China
This is typical of villages along major highways. aged man at the front desk who was screaming at the help for most of the time we were there. Our guide wouldn’t tell us what the entire ruckus was about. As usual, you get served more food than you can possibly eat, Kung Pao chicken, dumplings and two vegetable dishes. It seems to be impossible to explain that you really don’t want all that food. After lunch we visited the Lower and Upper Hua monastery. There are 21 monks that currently live at the monastery and peach was very friendly with one of them, but not friendly enough for him to let us take his picture. Our final tourist stop was the “9 Dragon Screen” which is larger than the screen in Beijing. It was built by the son of an Emperor in the 1600s when he was sent to Datong by his father. The house is gone but the wall decorated with ceramic tiles remains.
The day was cold and by now I was freezing and had sore throat, so when we got back to the hotel, I took a hot path and went to bed. We ordered room service which was truly disgusting. The menu choices included
Strip Mining
This is typical of the miles and miles of landscape created by strip mining. such tasty treats as chicken in salivaand male and female lungs. Jack tried to find something more normal, but when it came I couldn’t even bear the smell so Jack had a beer and I had a banana. I guess you can’t travel without something happening that you don’t like.
Datong is a coal mining town. We passed huge coal mines, the air is smoggy and you feel like you are in China’s West Virginia. It is everything that people complain is bad about industrialized China.
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