Gearden Hotel Datong

... this since Lord Baggott's Secret Luxury Appartment in the Riviera... <br><br>After forcing ourselves not to hide away in the hotel room for 2 days we went out on a tour of the famous hanging temples and caves. The temples are over 2000 years old and suspended 100 meters above ground on a sheer cliff face, the caves even older full of buddhist carvings. Both of these were amazing, as you will see on the photos....<br><br>

... catch a taxi the rest of the way. <br><br>Our choices for hotels was slim and we ended up in an old communist style hotel with a leather couch - that was a nice touch. Luke arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the ridiculous early hour of 5 am so that we could watch the sun rise from the peak. We stayed in the hotel for dinner and were surprised that the food was actually not too bad. That made for a pleasant change from the vast majority of meals we had ...

... I would take the night train to Pingyao. I was stared at mercilessly in the station. I can&#8217;t figure it out&#8230; are they curious? Resent me for being a woman traveling on my own? Am I strange looking to them? Whatever it is I couldn&#8217;t stand it anymore! I was fortunate enough to be in the same sleeper compartment as my new German friends. There were maybe four other western tourists on the entire train... again something I'd have to get used to.<br><br><br>

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... ctvrti postavili cvrt rezidencniho bydleni, nadherne radove domky v britskem stylu (ale se vsemi cinskymi vymozenostmi), za trimetrovou cihlovou zdi, s ozbrojenou hlidkou u vchodu. Nami hledany chram mel byt nekde tam, dokonce jsme nasli jednu jeho zed, ale dvere nikde, nakonec jsme vnikli i do toho prisne strezeneho okrsku, kde nas po chvilce dohnali hlidaci, ktere jsme chvili ignorovali hledaje chram, pak jsme se jich i zeptali, ti nemeli ani paru, no nakonec jsme zjistili ...

... and twist around each other in the vast landscape revealing huge gorges. On the bus we sat next to a nice young Chinese chap from Qingdao who was here visiting his girlfriend and wanted to improve his English by talking to us, he helped us to reach the temple by sharing a taxi with us and stopping for a group photo before heading off to Heng Shan to his hotel. The river water had completely frozen over in the cold and people had been throwing rocks at it to break ...

... goodbye to our driver who has been diligently and thoughtfully taking good care of all of us. Our flight took off on time and we landed in Xi'an at 8:30pm. Jiang, a tall, handsome young man met us at the gate outside the luggage claim area, holding a sign with my name on it. We are now in the hands ...

... of one of the very back buildings was there was a crazed security guy just waiting for a foreigner to whip out his camera so he could rush in yelling 'Deport him! Cancel his Visa! OR.....Feed him watery, tasteless and expensive fried rice for the rest of his life!' After I left the Huayan Temple I went back to my aimless wonderings in the maze behind the glitz and glamour of ...

... County, and about 70 kilometers south of Datong, the Wooden Pagoda is the oldest and highest wooden structure in China. It is regarded as the 'First Pagoda in the World' and a gem in the architectural field. It has now also been placed under national emphases under the Cultural Relics Protection Units. Built during the Liao Dynasty (about 1056), this wooden pagoda ...