Jin Shui Hotel Datong

... they once looked like, others missing parts or gone completely. Those in the caves to the right are generally brightly painted and look pretty nice--obviously restored at some point(s). It is amazing to imagine how much time was put into carving these sculptures--especially the thousand little Buddhas into the wall in one cave, for example--but I suppose it is not unrivaled in other faiths, or other things people are simply enthusiastic about. <br><br>We came back to Datong ...

... dirt tracks, strewn with half-dug holes, JCBs, steamrollers and mounds of dirt and rubble. Many of the once primely-located businesses and shops at the centre of the town have been left inaccessible, with many closed down or else presumably struggling. In places it appeared that houses or parts of buildings had simply been ripped down to make way for the expanded road, leaving empty shells and exposed decimated ...

... not attractive as they look like earth was excavated from somewhere, piled there and grass sprouted. Trees have been planted along side the railroad tracks as well as the roads&#8230; I suspect for a few reasons: a) to prevent the dust from blowing (the Gobi Desert in Mongolia borders northern China); b) as part of the Kyoto Accord; and, c) to block the ugly view! My second and third conclusions stem from the number of factories and refineries in the area. I was ...

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... minutes to spare... We had got 6hour train tickets for 31RMB, which is about 3pounds, and now we found out the joys of 3rd class. Definatley not on a tour now. We had "hard seats" but at least we had a table! The picture we took doesn't quite capture the atmosphere. But gives a good idea. So 6 hours later we followed to crowd out to Datong. Now the LP doesn't rate Datong and we can see why. BUT, our hostel is only 35RMB/night ...

... A very interesting finding was that some of the caves and ceilings had original paint and color.  Some of the red colors and blue colors were still really vibrant.  I just did not expect color like that to last! ( that sounded like a hair-color commercial... speaking of which, the top of my hair is red and the bottom is grayish blonde.  I would prefer a different look, but I just try to block it out of my mind.)  I have a ton of pictures of many of the caves, frescos, and the sculptures ...

... interupting each other and asking me questions like where was i from, whether me and Karin were married, what i thought of Datong/China etc. We managed to leave about 30 minutes later feeling dazed and confused. The next day we got up early, ate some brain for breakfast (well, brain shaped bread anyway) and came back and did the tour. Its an actual working mine, so you go down with the miners to 300m, then get a train for maybe 2 kms or ...

... lack of or non existent plumbing and huge communal rubbish areas. Why do I search for such places? To most it may sound strange but these are the areas I came to China for. They are the reason I don't teach in big cities and they house the children I love to teach. Those who come from families who can not and will probably never be able to put their child in an 'after hours ...

... bus fares. The first port of call for the day was the Buddhist Hanging Monastery which is located sixty five kilometers southeast of Datong city. You can catch a bus from Datong's Regional Bus Station to the town of Hunyuan and from there you would have to hire a taxi to take you the rest of the way. And I don't doubt they would charge you more than and arm and a leg ...

... next sixty years a heap of freaky people spent their lives carving somewhere up to fifty thousand Buddhist statues into the Datong cliff face. Then to their despair someone made a decision that would have really ****** them off in a big way. One of the big guys sat up and said, Um..... Nice work guys, I mean this is simply fabulous! I really ...