Shenghouyuan 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>

... 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>

... 14/10<br>I took the bus to the Hanging Monaster: it goes around the city to pick passengers until it is full, then it goes 65k.m in 2 hours just to the city near the mnaster, then you need a taxi! If you don't enjoy such things - don't go to this place. The small city is really China, as there are only few foreign tourists there(like Karni &amp; I). The others came in organized tours, with air-conditioned buses, look for an hour in the ...

... 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 ...

... burnout, we arranged a great deal to get us to The Hanging Monastery (&#24748;&#31354;&#23546;&#65289;and back. The place was packed with people (see photos) but was still pretty neat. My only problem with it is that the Buddhist nature of the whole thing is seriously downplayed--the attraction is that it's on the side of a cliff, not that it's a fully-functioning monastery on the side of the cliff. Therefore, the statues/walls weren't much to look at, as they are in some monasteries ...

... 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 ...

... was old. I hated that in Beijing. They redid everything so you never could tell if something was a week or a century or 5 centuries old. Anyway, the walkways were narrow! I guess when you build a monastery on stilts in a concave cliff face you are kind of limited in size, but it was a little sketchy to walk around at times. The statues were really cool and many were from the early Ming, but their eyes had been gouged out in the Cultural Revolution. I guess Red ...

... these buddhist caves were built around 470-490 AD. they literally carved around 50,000 buddhas into the rock. giant ones, tiny ones, painted, sitting standing crossed legs, you name it. some of the are pretty tall. the paint has mostly come off of them, except for a couple which are pretty cool inside, but you couldn't take picture with a flash, and it was a bit too dark for them to come out right. but you can imagine when i get some photos up. then we go for a wander. the guide ...

... of their colors and their stone pillared entrances. IN the shadows behind the pillars are thousands of carved figured wrapping the walls and ceilings and entrances and further back is another giant Buddha, representing happiness, money, good heart, etc. It's very difficult to describe but the colors and sheer number of sculptures is astounding and to think that all this was just a plain rock mountain once and seeing the intricacy and detail of the carvings and ...

Another national holiday in China means a weeks vacation, but I decide to stay pretty local, in the same province, and do some light traveling. My Chinese friend Kate wanted to go to the same place and then she asked if hr two friends could also come along, so traveling with three Chinese girls, who have never traveled anywhere, even in China, should be...interesting! Lin Jia, Kate, Zhu Bing Jie, and I decided to take the train to Datong ...