Sanjiang Kanglegong Datong

... barely protected edge at the dramatic drop down into the gorge below. We also visited the Yungang caves, 45 sculpted grottoes housing hundreds of Buddha paintings and statues from 2cm to 20m high, carved into the hillside. We've ventured out to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, camping out in a ger (nomad's tent) and riding horses out across the steppes. In contrast we also stopped at Shaptou adventure park, where ...

... explained that ‘they’ were all over the world. I shrugged my shoulders not understanding what it said or what he meant so he asked for a piece of paper and a pen and wrote something out… except it too was in Chinese!!! He kept looking back to his seat as though he was waiting for a cue from someone. I kept waiting for the sales pitch. He then said it was nice to meet me, wished me well, said goodbye and returned to his seat. I had so many ...

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... with a clear vision to visit 2 of the around Datong's main attractions, Yungang Grottoes and the Hanging Temple.<br><br>Due to the lack of timeframe and the distance of Hanging Temple (not to mentioned the difficulties of the public transport), it is best to use CITS to take me to those places. Their office is strategically located on the right side of the station's exit. We paid CNY120 each for the private car (it would be ...

... buddas and they were pretty spectacular. So many buddas everywhere! It has however got colder here, prob due to coming back west and not being in a city. The best cave was cave 5 with a MASSIVE budda in it, 20m or something tall and painted gold. We think we've managed to get onto a bus out of here tommorrow morning at 8am to Pingyao (beautiful says the LP) via Tiguan, so fingers crossed will keep you posted Love Emma and Emma xxx

... of the cliff in many places and it was difficult to tell if some of the rooms were in the side of the cave or outside.  It felt like the building was meshed with the cliff... like it was just stuck on there by a really big hand and has just stayed there for 100's of years.   The most amusing and surprising thing, I thought, was the lack of safety measures.  There were no reinforced balconies, no railings in the steep and winding stairs, and no mesh fence on the open fronts.  I felt like I ...

... that others had written down seemed to be 100 or more! It was really cold up there, with snow and ice on the ground, and very misty. It made the temples very atmospheric, although its a shame we couldn't see the views down into the valley below. After that we got the bus back to Datong, stayed the night there then got the train in the morning. I've come back to Beijing, Karin moved onto Pingyao although we might meet later in Shanghai or Chengdu.

... also for most of those who have been to China (whom usually don't stay long enough to grasp any difference anywhere except maybe the building structures etc) China really should be broken into three different countries based simply on diet. The southerners eat bucket loads of rice! Never believe a southerner when they tell you they only have one small bowl! In the north they eat ...

... raced through my mind as several months ago in Fujian. What kind of crazed lunatic monk would even consider building a temple so high on a mountain and why on stilts that are so thin and weak looking. Why not just dig a few caves and connect them with more caves? Surely this would be safer! I joined the hundreds of Chinese tourists who obviously couldn't read ...

... scenery. Let's move the capital! He then ran down to the Louyang Grottoes and said; Um, Nice work guys, I mean this is simply fabulous! I really like what you have done with the place, I really do! I guess someone forgot to tell you, we are moving the capital to Linzhang! So around AD534 hammers and chisels were put down and I'm sure many ...