Jin San Huan Hotel Datong

... only to a couple dozen of the caves, seemingly rotating caves in and out to ensure a slower degradation of the statues and paintings. The Yungang caves are all fully exposed, and the entry fee is a reasonable 60RMB (Mogao was 120 four years ago; who knows what it is now). All comparisons aside, you're still getting a pretty great experience here. The statues in the caves to the left of the massive statue (see photos) are quite worn down--some of them only giving a hint of ...

Since leaving Xi'an the roads have generally been much improved - plenty of tarmac, multi-lane expressways, with frequent toll booths - which made our stop in Datong, a rather grim industrial affair, all the more of a contrast. In presumably some effort at improvement or regeneration we found several of the main routes through the city have been completely dug up, and either blocked off completely or reduced to ...

... spoke any English. The nice older woman pointed to where I should put my luggage and that I could place my snacks and water on the small table in front of her.<br><br>The scenery between Beijing and Datong is very unappealing. In plain terms it reminds me of 'the pit' (Melfort reference&#8230; not the water pit but the gravel pit). It's sand and clay, dry, dusty, heaps of power lines with very few trees. There are some 'mountains&#8217; in the distance but they ...

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... again as the next day, Thursday we moved on. Becca left at 8am to get the underground to the airport, (Becca did you get back ok? let us know). And the trio became a duo. We got a taxi to Beijing West train station, after we'd talked to a woman on the phone who explained to the driver where it was... half way there he got out and cleaned his entire taxi witha feather duster. Very odd. But we got on out train and met declan, with ...

... to caves 4-6 which had fronts on them that looked like the wooden front of a temple.  These were the only caves that had wooden fronts.  Cave 6 had the largest Buddha.  To the right were caves 3-1, with cave 3 as the biggest cave.  To the left were the rest of the caves, caves 7-40 something.  One of the caves was known as the "Cave of Ten-thousand Buddhas" because it had 1,000's of Buddhas.  Big Buddhas, little Buddhas along the doorway, Buddhas hiding in niches, and frescos of Buddhas ...

... we had a wander round the centre of town looking for a bar when we were attacked by a crowd of students studying english. They made us sit down and bafflingly showed us some wedding photos. We looked at each other, wondering whether they were selling wedding photos, or perhaps they thought we should get married, when they let loose with a barrage of questions with the english they had learn so far. I felt like a celebrity, with 4 girls ...

... away behind it all are the sections that I search for the most. The poor areas where everyone has to use the public toilets, where the streets are narrow and usually made from stones or dirt, where children are allowed to play happily in that dirt and where families and friends gather in groups in the streets to talk, play cards or marjong. Sadly it is also where things smell due ...

... As I wanted to visit two places that were both around sixty to seventy kilometers from the city I really couldn't be bothered with buses over the next two days so I figured why not hire a cab for the day and get them both done today. And for the price I got the taxi for it really wasn't that much more than it would have cost in both wasted time finding bus stations ...

... 3 - 2 and it even took Jiang Ni awhile to figure this one out! So Grottoes hey! Last summer I visited the Louyang Grottoes and a year later I visted the Datong Grottoes. I kind of got it the wrong way around. I should have visited the Datong Grottoes first as they were carved first. They began somewhere between AD400 and AD430 and for ...