Xi Xian Ge Hotel 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>

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 ...

... like MIZBALA, ATAR BNIA (A CITY AFTER EARTHQUAKE). eVEN THE TEMPLES - I suspect they re-build the many temples. Datong will be nice in 20 years - so many temples. I saw the Dragon wall - magnificent. It was time to find an hotel, as the Lonely-planet's suggestions looked really lonely. I went back to the railstation, and Gao from CITS(Chinese Intrnational Tourists - THE Chinese tourists office) "found" me and took me to their hotel.<br ...

... n.m.), vstoupili jsme do mraku a viditelnost klesla na 10m. Teplota klesla take na povazenou, obleceni nam tak tak stacilo (a nekterym ani ne). V mlze jsme se ztratili a malem minuly cilovy chram na vrcholu. Nakonec se v mlznem oparu objevil chram ve kterem jsme se opet schledali (i s nekolika Cinskymi turisty, kteri do chramu pricestovali autobusem z druhe strany hory). Misa prinesla hnusnou kouli (z Beijingu z cajovny) az na vrchol a i pres ...

... nam Jenda sdeluje, ze objeli vsechna mista ve vesnici a bylo nemozne cokoliv sehnat.<br>Proto byla jedina posledni moznost spat v Hodinovem hotelu!!<br>Na recepci uz postavaly do elastickych oblecku navlecene cinanky, ktere cekaly, ze si jenda privede dalsi dva kamarady. Tak byli asi trochu zklamane, kdyz z auta vystoupili dve holky. <br>Po chodbach nam chodili podivne existence a pokoje nesli zavirat ...

Des nouvelles depuis Wutai Shan! Wow, Banff et Lake Louise peuvent bien aller se cacher, les montagnes ici sont malades (meme si elles sont pleines de charbon et que l'air est irrespirable!). C'est un petit village en creux de vallee entre 5 montagnes qui culminent jusqu'a environ 3000 metres. Le village lui meme se trouve a 1600 metres. Ici, toutes les cours ont leur petit tas de charbon et les gens s'en servent allegrement pour tout, chauffer l'eau, faire a manger, chauffer les maisons ...

... and get serious about religion.<br> <br>4 temples later, a horse ride and Alex climbing the money temple stairs, tiger skins, cat and fox fur on offer in the market, some terrible food and the most beautiful, friendly Monk who invited us to listen to him playing his flute we had had a magicaly experience in WuTaiShan and were seriously comtemplating giving Buddhism a whirl we were ready to leave...<br>

Enduring a long, unheated and mildly life threatening bus journey (it slipped off the side of a snowy mountain road at one point), I reached the peaceful Wutai Shan (five terrace moutain). One of the four sacred buddhist peaks in China, it was understandably almost deserted given the temperature was several degrees below freezing during the day and a hell of a lot colder at night. I was glad the hotel had good heating, though I wasn't quite so enthused by ...

... is a very old walled town, one of very few left in China. There are no cars or motorbikes allowed inside the walls during the daytime which means almost complete peace. We got warm friendly smiles from everyone there. We went for a nice dinner with an Aussie bloke, his Chinese teacher and an English lad Pete who we met at our hostel. Got to see Chinese people at their best tonight ...

After the caves we traveled back to Datong to catch a bus to Hunyaun, a small town near Xuankong Si (the Hanging Monastery), which is a monastery that was built into the side of a canyon and has been 'hanging' there intact for over 1,600 years (around 400 AD)! It was built along the contours of the cliff and the various buildings are connected by bridges and boardwalks and many statues of gods and Buddha's. The structure is supported by dozens of ...