Shuozhou Hotel

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>

... you climb in) and continue.<br>The monaster is made of wood, 3 stories, stands on wooden pillars, which stand on rocks shelves. Very nice.<br>I returnt at 14:30, wanted to go to the caves, but the CITS directions were not understood well.<br>I went to the hotel - no room, so I changed: the street near the railway has many hotels, I choosed one with many tourists.<br><br>15/10<br>The Yuan(?) Caves: very nice. the whole hill side is ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... the tourist office in the train station isn't open yet, and my only thought is to get a ticket for beijing for tonight. fortunately i get a ticket, which will dump me off there at 6 in the morning! i wont' get stuck in datong!! while i'm getting a ticket, there's one guy from canada in there too, so we start talking about how to get to the caves etc. we finally figure to go with the taxi, as it was the same price per person as the tour would have been. so we're off. after a chinese ...

... Datong. The caves are pretty cool, there are 53 in total and there are over 51,000 stone sculptures carved from the mountain rock. The first look from the entrance shows a 17th century Qing dynasty fortress built into the side of the mountain. The caves were built about 400 AD making them about 1,600 years old! There are many influences in the stone carvings and sculptures, from Persia and Byzantine to Greek to Indian Hinduism and Chinese Buddhism. Upon ...

... with and easy-going, she has squeezable puffy cheeks and is very pretty; Kate is quite a character and someone who makes me laugh just by looking at her, she's very excitable, particularly about food, but about anything really, but is very sweet...she has several, mostly food related nicknames - Food Machine, Hot Pot (a Chinese food and also her Chinese names means Pot), and Cake because of her propensity to get so excited when passing ...