Wantongyuan 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>

To save a bit of money we decided to travel with the locals on the 'hard sleeper' class on the train to Datong, and to be honest is wasn't too bad. There were 6 beds instead of 4 in each compartment, each bed was just a wooden platform with a blanket and pillow and there was not enough room to sit up but the 6 hour journey was pretty good!! We were the only westerners in this class so we felt like celebrities with all the ...

... 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 ...

... that we haven't seen that stuff before, anyway. <br><br>Upon our return to town, we decided to skip Huayan, the famous temple in town (it was being worked on anyway--huh), and instead headed to<br>Nine Dragon Screen (&#20061;&#40857;&#30887;), which is a glazed tile will depicting nine<br>dragons (huh) intended to protect the palace of the son of the first<br>emperor of the Ming Dynasty over 600 years ago. The palace is long<br>gone, but the screen remains. It is well-preserved ...

... 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 ...

... were really going apeshit in Shanxi at that time because we saw a lot of vandalism on these historical sights. After the monastery we went to the Yungang Caves, which are a UNESCO sight for a reason. They were awesome! They were all carved out of a cliff face from nothing, and some had 70-foot or taller Buddhas in them, surrounded on all sides by hundreds of carvings and paintings, even in the ceilings. The paintings in some caves are in really good shape, but ...

... said there was a section of the great wall that was crumbling in a field just a 15 min walk from the caves. we thought this sounded worthwhile, so we go looking for it. we end up wandering through a field, by a shanty little village and talked to a nice man with his goats. actually he talked to us and we talked to him, but nobody understood anything. lots of smiling and hellos. the guide book lied, which is guess is the real problem with guide books, but in a country like china ...

... the grandeur of the giant Buddhas and pagodas is remarkable. Cave 18 gave a bit of a different look. The caves so far have had the Buddhas inside the dwellings, in the shadows, but cave 18 is more Mt. Rushmore-ish in that the Buddhas here are out in the open. The Buddhas here represent one emperor from the Northern Wei dynasty (the ruling body during the construction) - Emperor Taiwu. These are great as well and afford some good photos. After this the ...

... there was already a miscommunication as Kate booked hard seats instead of hard sleepers, which meant spending 8 hours on an overnight train on a bench seat and not a single dorm-style bed! To state it more simply, this meant 8 hours of discomfort and no sleep whatsoever for me! But it's only one night, so no worries really. We have some fun on the train and then I count the hours until the train ride is over. IN Datong, one of Kates ...