Guanghe 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>

... and people taking pictures!<br><br>When we reached Datong we caught the bus to our hotel and checked in. Because there is no hostels in Datong we had to book a proper hotel for once. This turned out to be a 4 star luxury business hotel, not bad for £12 a night!!! We actually had a private bathroom with a toilet instead of a squat, toilet roll, bath, tv, air con, mini bar and even comlimentary toothbrushes!! We hadn't ...

... like MIZBALA, ATAR BNIA (A CITY AFTER EARTHQUAKE). eVEN THE TEMPLES - I suspect they re-build the many temples. Datong will be nice in 20 years - so many temples. I saw the Dragon wall - magnificent. It was time to find an hotel, as the Lonely-planet's suggestions looked really lonely. I went back to the railstation, and Gao from CITS(Chinese Intrnational Tourists - THE Chinese tourists office) "found" me and took me to their hotel.<br ...

... a taxi van with a French couple, not really wanting to make the ride over hills of packed dirt and potholes on a mototaxi. <br><br>The grottoes themselves are pretty amazing. I have been to Mogao Grottoes (&#33707;&#39640;&#31391;) in Dunhuang, Gansu, and these rival that trip. The only reason I would say Mogao is better is that they seem to be better taken care of--those there are each closed off from the elements by metal doors, and an expensive but knowledgeable guide takes ...

... for the evening. This morning, as I stood outside testing the weather to see if I would need a jacket, a man who spoke English pretty well came up offering to take us to a few tourist sites. Solicitations from taxi drivers can be overwhelming at times, which is a good thing. It means you can always bargain them down from astronomical rates to reasonable ones--if they don't take the offer, someone else will. Not wanting to speed through the two main sites of interest in one day and ...

Datong, Datong...What can I say about this city...it has one of the most memorable destination during my trip and the most photogenic temple I ever seen. But, was it worthed to make the long trip, which included two sleepless train ride on hard sleeper (in and out), inhaled sulphurous air and the unattractive city centre? You decide,,,<br><br>Finally, arrived in Datong at 6:00 in the morning from an overnight train from ...

... restaurant was closed, so we went to find another place. We ended up at some place with a buffet, dim sum, and a menu, but we didn't eat much. Still, 4 plates came to $2 US. No **** things are cheaper in the provinces than on the coast! The first day we went to the Hanging Monastery, which is about 70 KM from town. This place was really impressive. It has been there since the Tang dynasty, but it has been refurbished later so you never know what was new and ...

... get my 40 yuan change from the guy, or i lost it because i was short money later. it's about $5, but still annoying. plus, talk about freezing, there were literally icicles hanging down off one of the ledges. it was unpleasantly cold out. the coat and hat have returned. we then head off to the caves. these are the prime attraction in datong, the reason any stupid person decides to come here for the day. i must say, they were pretty cool. maybe not worth an entire day, but that's ...

... off on the east side of the fortress with caves 1 to 4 and there were some interesting sites, but they paled in comparison to caves 5 and 6 and to the caves on the west side of the fortress. Cave 5 houses the 56 foot tall Buddha and all the walls and ceiling are covered with Buddhist tales and processions (unfortunately they were policing photographers pretty sternly). Cave 6 had a 49 foot pagoda and many carvings as well. Caves 7 - 9 were beautiful ...

... many Buddhist halls and statues and is pretty interesting, just like the Shanhua temple we vested afterwards. Near Shanhua was an old, crumbling piece of the Great Wall, so we had fun climbing up and on it and have local children guide us around it. Outside of Beijing and Shanghai, nightlife in China is pretty tame so we just chilled at a shopping center with an arcade and then walked home, stopping for dinner and then calling it a night.