Beichen Garden Hotel Datong

... the announcements on the train I did not know where we were at any of the stops. The stern woman was kind enough to motion to me that we had reached Datong and even made certain that I had all my bags.

Immediately I was already having negative feelings about China. I was having issues with the food, there was a determined language barrier as English was not as widely spoken as I had become accustomed to, and I found the people generally not nearly as ...

... worried we would not be able to communicate. I finally got fed up with his consistent nagging and criticism of my seven-month-old language skills (as I often did during the trip) and showed him that I could buy the tickets to Datong myself in Chinese. He acted impressed, but the patronizing continued. My introduction to Datong was exactly like I expected, that's why it was so surprising. Shanxi, Datong in particular, is known for it's high-quality coal. The terrain is dry, sandy and ...

... disputed reasons (??? decide for yourself). The centrepiece of the caves is the peaceful and solemly 17M tall Buddha (which I think has been restored).

Hanging temple/ monastery (60 yuan) is more than an hour drive from the Grottoes, which gave me time to absorb the cultural and historical experience (and various photos shots) from Yungang Grottoes. The temple itself is an amazing sites, a definate must for all ...

... lampicky nad zrcadlem a pod., vedle me postele koukala ze zeme vodovodni trubka, no kdo pamatuje Zborenec vi, o cem mluvim :) Dalsi prekvapeni nastalo, kdyz jsme se vypravila omrknout spolecnou koupelnu. Ukazalo se, ze to neni koupelna, ale zachod. Rychly dotaz na recepci objasnil, ze pokoj bez socialky skutecne znamena jeden zachod na patre a zadnou sprchu. Inu rozhodla jsem se, ze se umyju v umyvadle, jenze ouha, jaksi bez teple vody. Plus odpad taky moc nefunoval, no aspon ...

... train.  Oh, I left out the part where we bought hard bed tickets for the train from Shijiazhuang to Datong which were really great.  We got to lay down and get some sleep over our 10 hour trip.  BUT I though I either got soft seat tickets or hard bed tickets for our train from Datong to Beijing..... but it turned out that I probably messed up and we ended up with HARD SEAT tickets.  Just the word heard seat doesn't really sound pleasant, but it doesn't give enough credit to exactly how ...

... yan rou pao muo", or small torn pieces of dense pita-like bread soaked in a rich lamb stew. Every visitor says it's a must try, but no one ever enjoys it mostly due to the gamey smell. The smell didn't bother me, the texture did. It tasted like some nasty gruel - I gave up after half a bowl. Worst Day EVER! On a bus in Xian, I found a seat between 2 ppl. A few stops later, 2 guys came on and one took the empty seat to my right. Later the seat to my left opened up and the ...

... minds fill with dreams and visions. For most that is all it will ever be, just a dream and that goes for Tibet and Nepal for us. Mention either of those two to your friends and you can sit back and watch them as they replay documentaries and childhood dreams in their minds giant plasma screen. Not many Chinese that I know would choose Tibet over Xinjiang Province. In fact not ...

... from Datong City and fifty kilometers from the Hanging Monastery. The town is obviously setting itself up for a future based on tourism. The streets are now lined with a New Ancient looking town and red lanterns are hanging over the roads and outside most stores. Mu Ta was built in the 11th Century and made entirely from huge and heavy planks of wood. It feels more ...

... which I guess is the city's Peoples Square. The sidewalks were lined with market stalls and 'You Buy You Buy' people selling their wares. We slowly moved in the general direction of the crowd and around eleven we began our journey back towards the train station down Da Bijie and Caochangcheng Jie. What a beautiful end to an adventurous day ...

We took another bus eastward, crossing the Yellow river at Wubao, and headed for Taiyuan, the capital of the coal rich Shanxi province. Soon we're traveling on a divided highway that looks brand new. The city of Taiyuan looks much more like Beijing ...