From Beijing we took a 6 hour train journey to Datong. Here we visited a system of caves with huge carved statues of Buddha that were over 2500 years old. It was extremely impressive, and they estimate there are in total 40 thousand seperate statues. Some of them even have the remaining colours they were originally painted with...which was reall...

I don't know which word would describe Datong better, grimy or gritty....so let's use both. I'm on the outskirts of Inner Mongolia.....about four or five hours from the big pickle...Beijing. There's a thin layer of black dust coating everything outside. My hotel window overlooks a huge pile of coal and though I've seen 'em hauling away shovelful...

We'll be kind to Datong and refrain from describing it. Suffice to say most travellers we talked to there were either staying just one night or none at all. The main (and perhaps only) reason people visit Datong is to see the Yungang caves and the Hanging Monastry. We visited both these sites on the same day on a guided tour. The Hanging Monastr...

After a heavy session for Jo Jos birthday in a bar in beijing there was a few tears shed when Dave, Jo Jo, Babs, Trace and meself said good bye to the girls and headed off together to tour China. First stop was Datong to see the hanging temples and the Yungang caves. Very impressed with the hanging temple. Mad place to put a temple but sure hey ...

Drive fromPinyao to datong - going to hanging monostaries Bus crash @ 2 hospital Back to hotel Hot pot dinner free!!

Asked what were the top three places that we have visited, everyone has included the Yungang Grottos, mostly as number 1. As the Guide book says : " Confronted and dwarfed by a 17 metre high Buddha.....gold face shining softly in half light is an awesome, humbling experience......the other wordly appearance is helped by blue hair and ruby red li...

Well we caught the overnight train from Beijing to Datong. Hard Sleeper class turned out to be 6 very narrow beds, 3 above each other on each wall. in a small cubicle with no door. Not bad though. I was on the top, lucky, Richard would have banged his head, not much room up there. Richie was in the middle, a bit more room for his head. The reaso...

Set off for the caves late morning. They are cut into the southern cliffs of Wuzhou Shan 16km west of Datong and house some 50,000 Budhist statues. Had to take two buses, the first costing Y1. There is no ticket collector. One simply deposits the money in a box by the drivers seat. I only had a Y10 note and the driver seemed completely disintere...