Tai He Chun Datong

... dunes of the Tengger desert meet the Yellow River. Here one can sledge down the dunes, ride a camel, cruise on a sheepskin raft (literally floated on an array of inflated sheep-shaped skins) or, as we did for a bit of a giggle, zoom down from the top of the dunes across the river hanging from a zip line. The Chinese are nuts!<br><br>In confirmation of this point, the last temple we visited in the town of ...

... about this rendezvous: Was it a dare? Was he trying to hit on me? Or, and mostly likely, was he simply wanting to practice his English? And what was this strange organization that he belonged to? Did they randomly great foreigners and try to make them feel welcome in their country?!!<br><br>The older woman and her granddaughter and the 2 younger people all got off the train before Datong which left myself and the woman about my age. She had a stern face and ...

Over the Ching Ming Festival Weekend (Grave Sweeping) an acquaintance of mine invited me to his home in Shanxi province to travel and explore the many sites in the region. At first, I was willing to go because I heard that there were many interesting historical sites in Shanxi and one of the "Five Famous Mountains of China" that Chinese people can not stop talking about. So, I decided that I would take the long weekend to go with him. However, Lu Wei (his English name is Thomas) failed to ...

... if its more than 5 people). <br><br>Had the above attractions are not located in Datong, I doubted that I would come and visit this city. The sulphurous air polution, constructions sites and lack of interesting sites (they have nine dragons wall and few temples) kept me wondering why I spent 7 hours on the train for this trip..<br><br>Yungang grotoes (60 yuan) located 16km from the city and built in mid 400AD. This ...

Do Datongu jsme dorazili kolem pul sedme rano, a v takovou ranni dobu je odporne kazde mesto, zvlast kdyz ho clovek vidi poprve z nadrazi. Navic vzdousek, jako predzvest obecne platnych rozptylovych podminek v Shanxi, skutecne stal za to. Prvnim problemem bylo najit nejake ubytovani, abysme se trochu obcerstvili, vzhledem k tomu, ze sprchu jsme nevideli uz tri dny, a abysme se nemuseli bat, ze budeme muset spat na nadrazi. Teplota byla zdravych minus deset, po Pekingu trochu zima ...

... back up just a little to far while taking a picture and fall right off the temple.  Wait, they did take some safety measures... they put up maybe 10 signs throughout the temple that stated "SAFTY FIRST" so I need to give them a little credit; not for their English, but for their attempt to create a sort of safe atmosphere!  In all reality, you just had to be really aware of where you were and where your next step would be.  We just thought of it as a challenge and were thankful to see ...

So this is it! This long journey that started back in May is winding down to a shotgun tour through some ancient Chinese capitals. In only a week, I blasted through 5 cities, including Xian, Hua Shan, Luoyang, Pingyao, and Datong, so I spent a lot of my time traveling. But then again, there just wasn't enough to offer in any town other than Xian to warrant spending a couple of nights. Xian While I was certainly impressed to be stared back by the terracotta warriors, I didn't ...

... Never believe a northerner when they tell you they eat rice! I can tell you, the rice up here in the north is very watery, ****** and bloody expensive! And in the west, mutton and fresh hand made noodles! Put a bowl of hand made noodles before a southerner or a northerner and they will both begin to tell you stories from history that will make your heart skip a few beats and ...

... Chinese or English as they seemed to be wondering aimlessly in all directions trying to push past each other on the tiny walk ways that connected each section of the temple. As there really was only room for one person walking in one direction the temple route was clearly marked which direction to go to make it easier on the hundreds that followed. The walk ways really ...

... those who had spent the last many years of their lives creating master pieces for the Emperor jumped off the same cliff they had been sleeping in and those that didn't jump moved their carving equipment to the new capital of Linzhang City. So within sixty years fifty thousand carvings had been created in two hundred and fifty two small ...