Blogs from Shanxi, China, Asia - page 28

Catching the hard sleeper train from Beijing (West) to Datong for the princely sum of 68 Yuan (about five pounds), was a little more eventful than intended. We left it a little late and ended up dashing across town in a taxi and running across four lanes of traffic, before joining the queue for our train. It seemed as if the entire 1.3 billion population of China had chosen to go to Datong with us. Chinese railways stations are a lot like an airport departure lounge, you wait in a designated waiting area until your train is ready for boarding and then you do the easy jet rush to board. We eventually settled into our allocated bunks and arrived safely in Datong five and a half hours later. We had pre-booked our accommodation and were happily ... read more

We left Wutai Shan as we had arrived... on a chain smoking Chinese mini bus, this time with the added entertainment factor for poor Ann who got to sit next to a mad monk who sneaked her moby number and then wanted to listen to her iPod... apparently Simon and Garfunkel were a bit hit!! The journey to Taiyuan, where we were to change for our final destination of Pingyao was one of contrasts. Initially we got to see some of the stunning mountain scenery that we'd missed because of the bad weather on the way up - green, mountainous and peaceful. As we got to lower grounds that changed to soot filled coal producing industrial towns. Towards the end we saw the strangest thing - on a motorway there were people in orange suits sweeping ... read more

The train ride to Pingyao was not as comfortable as the overnighter to Xian but the good news is it was a little shorter. Left at 8:30 at night and arrived in Pingyao at 7AM, greeted by a sign directing us to the "Underground Funnel" to avoid walking over the tracks :). Pingyao is pretty small and a very traditional village. We spent the day on our own visiting various sites and museums and temples in the town; today we headed out to see the house of a very wealthy gentleman - the details of which I will post later. Suffice to say it was the size of a small town and quite incredible. While walking the walls around the home you could see cave houses built into the mountainside. These are actual caves that have ... read more

Our first sleeper train When we last wrote we were getting ready to head for the train station. We figured out which track to go to, boarded the train, and were pleasantly surprised by the nice quarters (granted we had paid for the nicest bunks). Our cabin had four bunks, we each had a top one, and an older Chinese lady was getting settled in one of the bottom bunks. Wow, we thought, this will be a good night's sleep after all. Then the family came in. Five people and one baby converged on our small cabin. We scrambled to the top bunks and wondered what was going on. Okay, a few of them started saying goodbye...but then there were still the baby, the mother, and what we thought was the nanny. The steward came by ... read more

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 tour group got fed a selection of local dishes at lunch time, which were really good. Of course it was only AFTER we had finished that they informed us that one of the dishes, which tasted like really tender lamb, was really dog! Ah well, it was bound to happen sooner or later... Datong is quite a small town in China (only ... read more