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Published: July 16th 2008
Yungang Caves
Big Buddha's everywhere!I travel to Datong, passing through the huge industrial areas of Northern CHina. This is where much of the country's coal comes from and hence where many of the massive power-stations are. They're a blight on the landscape but, in such a growing, power-hungry country, they've got to put them somewhere.
Just West of Datong are the Yungang caves, a huge site of over 51,000 Buddhist carvings in a sand-stone cliff-face. Work began here in 453AD, when Datong was the province's capital, and much of the big stuff has survived well.
From here I head 40 miles South-East of Datong to see Xuankong Si - the Hanging Temple. You may have seen pictures of this amazing place, clinging precariously to the side of a canyon wall. The wooden buildings, supported by frighteningly thin wooden poles are actually only a facade to the halls, hewn from the rock behind.
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