Datong daytrip nr. 1

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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 site is opposite a massive coal mine but it doesn't do it too much harm I believe.
Above the site are some remains of Ming beacon towers, used to protect any entries leading to Mongolia.

Apparently these caves were carved by the ''Tuoba'', a tribe of nomads speaking a Turkic language whom united the north of China.
It's pretty amazing to see all the different styles- there are influences from the Middle East, India and even as far as Greece.
The site was definitely worth visiting.

After a lunch break, we decided to stop accross the road at the coal mine. We discovered that there was actualy a tour of the mine for tourists, but unfortunately, this was closed for whatever unapparent reason.
Still, we managed to walk inside and got as far as the shaft where the men went down into the ground.
It really was a weird experience. At one point we were walking through this hallway, where it was really dark.
At both sides there were black-faced mine workers sitting on the floor having a smoko (cigarette break), whilst in front of us there was a staircase leading down. My friend was walking ahead of me, and there was loads of steam (temperature difference) and vague light coming from down there....
The whole experience really felt a bit eerie, but it was so cool at the same time to be in a place like that.

That night I felt sick, so stayed in my hotel bed. Luckily I felt better the next day to go to the hanging monastry.

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Photos

The caves
Looking at my friend in the back, the size of the caves are clearly seen from the perspective.

encrypted stone
Looking accross from yungang caves.

Icy staircase
At the Datong coalmine.

Miner.
This miner was so friendly to have his photo taken with me.

Black faced....
I like the contrast of the clean pink coat and the coal-mine worker's look.

Comments

[Edward]

any hostel in Datong?
hey, Johannes. It seems that Datong really worth a visit. Where did u guys stay in there. Is there any Hostel, like hosteling international there? Thanks

[frisian traveler]

Datong
When we stayed there, we booked a hotel, but my lonely planet syas there's something like a hostel; It's called Feitian Binuan, it's on Zhanqian Jie, and it has dorms for 35 Yuan, if that's what you're looking for..... Let me know if you've been or not, where you stayed and if you liked it; I'm interested. Don't go for the city itself, you mainly go there or the surrounding sights.... Good luck!