Datong Hotel

13/10 - Datong<br>I needed 2 local buses and a long walk to get to the bus station to Datong - good Chinese people helped me.The drive was nice, 4.5 hours: bushes and green trees with colourful autumn leaves.<br>As you reach Datong, the area look like the north Negev, and Datong - like Beer-Sheva in the 50th: dusty, cold winds. They destroy the small buildings and build new big buildings. Meanwhile the whole city(1.1 million people ...

The bus ride from Beijing went through some memorable and beautiful countryside. Once we were out of the urban sprawl we entered the dramatic hillside harbouring the Great Wall. On the other side of the hills began the vast expanse of inner Mongolia and I thought about the Mongol Hordes lead by Genghis or Kublai Khan leading their charges on horseback across the wind swept plains towards the Great Wall protecting China.<br><br>The bus came to stop in the ...

... held up in rush hour traffic for some time). Welearned a little more about herself and about Datong which was really nice as on the tour we got the impression that her English was limited to the 'spiel&#8217; that she gave but we soon found out otherwise.<br><br>Sebastian, Jasmine and I went to see the Nine Dragon Screen. It is a wall that was built about 600 years ago... covered with 9 dragons, of course... and is the largest glazed wall in China. We later ...

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... nez jsme dorazili k mistni uhelne panvi, v plnem rozkvetu. Tenhle dul uzce souvisi s jiz zminenymi jeskynemi. Pred zapisem do UNESCO totiz silnice primo od dolu vedla par desitek metru od teto pamatky. Coz melo za nasledek, ze sochy byly cerne jako bota, a asi i celou radu dalsich poskozeni. Nicmene v Cine neni nic nemozne, mistni urady se proste rozhodly silnici prestehovat o par kilometru dal, jeskyne restaurovat a pak zapsat do UNESCO, to vse probehlo cca pred deseti lety ...

... have to just have a little of everything!  We then explore the park around the Temple of Heaven or Tiantan.  This park is really great for people watching.  We watched Chinese people do just about every kind of activity from dancing, to playing with yoyo's, to exercising and more.  It was fun to watch the types of games they play that are different from games you can find in America.  I have included some pictures and a few videos of some of the games; my favorite being the video of the ...

... minutes as we were short for time. We then drove to the business section of the coal miner community to have lunch. Again, we were let into a private dining room where Rui's father-in-law was waiting. After some greetings, we sat down to eat. Dishes after dishes were brought onto the table. The ...

... myself over on Huayansi Jie (Road) and from the sound of the music I was very near the Lower Huayan Monastery. Flashy big and bright tour buses were parked out the front of the temple and of course right in the middle of the road where the drivers had no intention of moving for anyone no matter how loud their horns were! I sat and watched the commotion for ten or so minutes in ...

... the monastery, the sculptures of Sakyamuni, Confucius and Laotzu appear together, which is unusual. There are 40 halls and cabinets, which contain about 80 sculptures made of copper, iron, terracotta, and stone. The features are vividly carved. Why build a monastery like this? Location is the first reason; building a monastery on the cliff could shield it from ...