Wufenghotel Wutaishan

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>

... and people taking pictures!<br><br>When we reached Datong we caught the bus to our hotel and checked in. Because there is no hostels in Datong we had to book a proper hotel for once. This turned out to be a 4 star luxury business hotel, not bad for £12 a night!!! We actually had a private bathroom with a toilet instead of a squat, toilet roll, bath, tv, air con, mini bar and even comlimentary toothbrushes!! We hadn't ...

... terrace jsme pred chramem potkali 2 cerne lisky. Nejprve jsme k nim meli docela respekt, ale nakonec jsme se skamaradili a lisky jsme nakrmili cinskymi piskoty, ktere nam uz prilis nejeli. Nejvetsi zajimavost chramu byla v tom, ze nemel zadny vchod, pouze provizorni diru ve zdi. V chramu prave probihala rozsahla rekonstrukce, jelikoz se pripravoval na dokonceni pevne cesty a masivni priliv turistu.<br><br><br><br>Z chramu jsme se vydali zpet ...

... znacku. Ostatni auta objizdi misto, ktere zacpal bus a auto temer potokem. <br>Nasleduje nekonecne cekani na policii. Nakonec jedeme do Wutaishan v aute neznamym s cinanem. Vstup do pohori a chramoveho komplexu Wutai stoji 220 yuanu na osobu (vcetne pojisteni).<br><br>story2: sokujci noc ve Wutaisha (pokus nas okrast v hospode)<br>Dojizdime do Wutai, do hl. vesnice a nemuzeme sehnat ubytovani ...

... aucune reaction. On se met alors a leur faire des grimaces et la ils finissent par comprendre et tourner de la tete jusqu'a ce qu'on arrete de leur porter attention et qu'il se remettent de nouveau a nous regarder la bouche ouverte. Ils sont bien droles ces chinois!<br><br>Mais on a eu nous-meme notre dose d'animaux de cirque. On a vu une vieille dame et sa petite fille qui devaient venir on ne sait trop de quelle tribu. Elles etaient habillees d'une facon tellement intense, ca ...

Woke up in a hotel with no electricity (see we do slum it sometimes!) and headed to the... <br>JUST WATCHED SOMEONE SPIT DOWN THE SIDE OF A CHAIR IN THE INTERNET SHOP - GROSS<br><br>Next we had a 3 hour coach journey and met some more nice locals, we were on our way to one of the most holly spots in China with more than 52 temples spread across the Wu Tai Shaun mountain range - it was time to look at ...

... was the top, until the final scramble though shin-deep snow took me a peak that might well (or might not, it's not really that important) have been one of the five terraces for which the area was named. Despite the lack of path, there was a small shrine at the top, surrounded by some beautifully windswept snow. I don't think anyone had been there for a while; good to have a bit of time and space to myself. And running downhill through snow is great fun :)

... day when we escaped into the hills above town. It was incredible, absolutely astounding natural beauty, flower filled meadows and fresh air, and not a soul other than ourselves willing to make the effort to hike the hill. Sooooo rare in China to find 1) fairly untouched natural beauty, and 2) solitude. We spent a few hours hiking, then I had to retreat to find my bus back to big bad Beijing and the last days of travel. Last update soon to come, paz y amor, --Shawn

... city walls of Xi'an - about 14 km around. It was cheap, and we had picked a good day to do it (quite warm). The wall was in good shape and wide enough to accomodate a lot people and bikes, though there weren't many. From the wall we could see down into the city, and at one point looked down on an old, seemingly unpopular Tibetan Buddhist temple. We saw a monk circumambulate a hall, spinning prayer wheels as he went. He looked up and saw us and gave us a ...

... pillars and the interior is literally half-house, half-cave. The complex is located at the foot of Mt. Hengshan, which is one of the five "Sacred Mountains" in China...an old Emperor first visited the mountain circa 2372 BC. Anyway we arrive and its quite a site to see this old monastery built into the side of the cliff like some magnet stuck on your refrigerator! From far off you cant really see the pillars so it really does look like it was just ...