Yindu 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>

... 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>

13/10 - Datong<br>I needed 2 local buses and a long walk to get to the bus station to Datong - good Chinese people helped me.The drive was nice, 4.5 hours: bushes and green trees with colourful autumn leaves.<br>As you reach Datong, the area look like the north Negev, and Datong - like Beer-Sheva in the 50th: dusty, cold winds. They destroy the small buildings and build new big buildings. Meanwhile the whole city(1.1 million people ...

... diky jazykove bariere prilis nepopovidali, zato jsme si je vyfotili. Ke konci jsme premysleli, kolik dat soferovi za cestu. Nakonec se ukazalo, ze cesta neni zadarmo tak jako tak, a vzdy stoji nekolik (mnoho) pohledu do vystrihu a nakonec si ridic stejne rekne kolik chce (tentokrate Y20).<br><br><br><br>Ridic nas vysadil v bezejmene vesnici (2000 m.n.m.). Mistni vesnicane, kteri zrejme nikdy nespatrili belocha, se vsichni schromazdili na navsi ...

... damicek z Evropy) :)<br> Po dlohe chvili cekani kdy kluci neprichazi a majitele uz pomalu uklizi hospodu se rozhodujeme platit (dve mala jidla a dve piti) Kdyz nam prinesou ucet 130 yuanu me malem trefi slak (jedna se totiz asi o 2-3 nasobek bezne ceny) Nasleduje chvile tezke hadky a smlouvani. <br>Vyzaduji cinske menu, kde jsou ceny za jidlo cca 20yuanu. Nasleduje hadka, kde na mne cinanka krici cinsky ...

... couleurs-la, c'etait tres louche! Des renards cest roux, c'est pas blanc tachete brun et noir d'habitude, et c'est encore moins tigre. Et un loup, c'est pas couleur golden retriever!<br><br>On espere juste que c'est pas du 'loup' ou du 'renard' qu'il y avait dans notre assiette pour souper...<br><br>Prochaine destination: Pingyao, une ville qui a completement conserve son architecture chinoise traditionnelle, je sens que ca va etre tres cool!<br> <br>A bientot,<br><br>Sly &amp; Joe<br>

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 :)

We've been in China a week now and have had to re-evaluate what we are going to be able to see. We completely under-estimated the size of the country and have had to write off alot of locations (Tibet included unfortunately). But back to Pingyao. We arrived at 5am to Yamen Hostel. Its a great hostel with antique Chinese furniture a couple of hundred years old. Really nice place to stay ...

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 ...