Bohaiwan Hotel Shuozhou

Wutaishan was one of our greatest disasters to date.Hee and there's been a few. I booked a hostel which gave directions to Wutaishan bus station but was in fact in Nanning- a whole other provence. Oops.<br>Pretty place, once we'd finally checked into somewhere in our price range. It was the coldest place I've ever been. The water in the river had frozen solid! We had pot noodles in bed and tried some rice wine, (evil smelling stuff) and quickly got on a bus out of there! <br>Love Lucy xxx<br>

To save a bit of money we decided to travel with the locals on the 'hard sleeper' class on the train to Datong, and to be honest is wasn't too bad. There were 6 beds instead of 4 in each compartment, each bed was just a wooden platform with a blanket and pillow and there was not enough room to sit up but the 6 hour journey was pretty good!! We were the only westerners in this class so we felt like celebrities with all the ...

... with Budhaa images - they counted 51,000. Reminds Petra or Lalibela. Some are still coloured.<br>I took the 13:40 train to Beijing. It arrived only at 21:20: 7.5 hours! Anyway, it is easy to get from there to the hostel, as the subway is nearby.<br>I read, did Soduku, even found 2 Chinese girls who know some English.<br>Beijing looks clean in comperison to Datong.<br>I ate dinner with 2 Israelis from Rehovot, who have just arrived<br>

... Buddha'd out. After a Mid-Autumn Day dinner at a nice restaurant, we ended the evening at UBC Coffee, an insanely high-priced western place where you are paying for the comfortable couches and the atmosphere. Still, the waitress had no idea what went into a margarita, so I had to ask her to guide me to the bar and have the bartender produce the bottles to be sure it wasn't something weird. It was the real deal, except for the fact that it was made with lemon, not lime juice. <br>

... burnout, we arranged a great deal to get us to The Hanging Monastery (&#24748;&#31354;&#23546;&#65289;and back. The place was packed with people (see photos) but was still pretty neat. My only problem with it is that the Buddhist nature of the whole thing is seriously downplayed--the attraction is that it's on the side of a cliff, not that it's a fully-functioning monastery on the side of the cliff. Therefore, the statues/walls weren't much to look at, as they are in some monasteries ...

... with a clear vision to visit 2 of the around Datong's main attractions, Yungang Grottoes and the Hanging Temple.<br><br>Due to the lack of timeframe and the distance of Hanging Temple (not to mentioned the difficulties of the public transport), it is best to use CITS to take me to those places. Their office is strategically located on the right side of the station's exit. We paid CNY120 each for the private car (it would be ...

... was old. I hated that in Beijing. They redid everything so you never could tell if something was a week or a century or 5 centuries old. Anyway, the walkways were narrow! I guess when you build a monastery on stilts in a concave cliff face you are kind of limited in size, but it was a little sketchy to walk around at times. The statues were really cool and many were from the early Ming, but their eyes had been gouged out in the Cultural Revolution. I guess Red ...

... of noodles (do you know how many noodles i've eaten here?? i don't even want to think about it, and yet i continue to get them. it's like a love hate relationship), we head out to the hanging monastery. it's barely 7. now, the hanging monastery gets touted in books as being a terrific place. while it's sort of neat, it's really not worth the 35-40 mile drive out of town and an entrance fee that's as high as the caves, when they're definitely not as cool. and i think i forget ...

... many of the caves, you're greeted with wall-to-ceiling carvings depicting various stories and celestial beings that hover over you and seem to be watching everyone. Inside the caves are giant Buddhas, ranging from 6 feet tall to 56 feet tall! There are also giant pagodas, old watchtowers, sculptures, and many colors. It's strange to think the colors have lasted for 1,600 years. You can see a lot of erosion, but its very well maintained and amazing. Anyway, I ...

... cake shop! Anyway, after sleeping a bit, we take off to explore Datong, which was once the ancient imperial capital of China around 500AD. First we walked to Jiulong Bi (9 Dragon screen), which is a massive tiled wall depicting fire-breathing dragons. Its over 26 feet high, 147 feet long, is 6.5 feet thick, and is from the Ming Dynasty. After the dragon screen we went to Huayan Temple which is a monastery that date back to 1140 AD. It ...