Datong and Beijing
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2008
1
7
13
Trip End
Jul 2009
Datong,
Shanxi,
China
Monday, December 1, 2008
Datong is a city that is popularly known for the coal production. It is not a big city and it is not know for its beauty. It has some older tamples inside the city, but what city doesn't'... So why go there? Honestly, there were photos in my Fodor's China guide of some caves and of a temple hanging on the side of a cliff. These photos, combined with the cheap train ticket were enough for us to want to try it. About 10 miles outside of Datong are the Yungang Caves. These are a string of caves, grottos, and niches that stretch for more than a half of mile that contain more than 50,000 Buddha images and other religious figures. They were carved into the sandstone cliffs mainly during the 5th- century Wei Dynasty. They are an overwhelming sight upon first arrival and become even more amazing and mind-boggling looking closer. The carved statues, stone pagodas, and frescoes would be almost impossible to build, carve, and create now using modern technology and tools. But thinking about the conditions, the lack of modern technology, and the types of tools used during the 5th century makes reality of the caves even more impressive.
The caves were numbered from 1-40 something but there were hundreds of smaller caves in between and along another cliff that we could not reach. The entrance leads to caves 4-6 which had fronts on them that looked like the wooden front of a temple. These were the only caves that had wooden fronts. Cave 6 had the largest Buddha. To the right were caves 3-1, with cave 3 as the biggest cave. To the left were the rest of the caves, caves 7-40 something. One of the caves was known as the "Cave of Ten-thousand Buddhas" because it had 1,000's of Buddhas. Big Buddhas, little Buddhas along the doorway, Buddhas hiding in niches, and frescos of Buddhas. A very interesting finding was that some of the caves and ceilings had original paint and color. Some of the red colors and blue colors were still really vibrant. I just did not expect color like that to last! ( that sounded like a hair-color commercial... speaking of which, the top of my hair is red and the bottom is grayish blonde. I would prefer a different look, but I just try to block it out of my mind.) I have a ton of pictures of many of the caves, frescos, and the sculptures!
We got back in our rented car for the day (with a driver) and he took us about 40 more mile out of town to the Hanging Temple. This temple was built by the Wei Dynasty again over 1,400 years ago. It is a temple that was constructed on the side of a cliff. The temple halls are carved in the rock face and are covered by wooden facades. The facades are supported by very thin pillars balanced on ledges below. And a series of bridges and walkways connect all of the different rooms and halls.
I personally cannot believe this thing holds up because sometimes you look down and really just feel like you are being held up by this slender piece of wood below you. But I calm myself by thinking logically about how long it has held up compared with the chances of it actually falling down on the day that I come to visit! I'm no math major (Willie) but the chances are slim. The construction was interesting to discover because you would really see the wood foundation going into the side of the cliff in many places and it was difficult to tell if some of the rooms were in the side of the cave or outside. It felt like the building was meshed with the cliff... like it was just stuck on there by a really big hand and has just stayed there for 100's of years.
The most amusing and surprising thing, I thought, was the lack of safety measures. There were no reinforced balconies, no railings in the steep and winding stairs, and no mesh fence on the open fronts. I felt like I could back up just a little to far while taking a picture and fall right off the temple. Wait, they did take some safety measures... they put up maybe 10 signs throughout the temple that stated "SAFTY FIRST" so I need to give them a little credit; not for their English, but for their attempt to create a sort of safe atmosphere! In all reality, you just had to be really aware of where you were and where your next step would be. We just thought of it as a challenge and were thankful to see the Hanging Temple more like its original construction.
Our driver took us back to Datong where we spent a few hours killing time at a McDonalds and various department stores. After dinner we experienced our first tea house. It was a really nice and quiet place where you could have a 2 person room for one hour for 20 RMB ($3) and a pot of any kind of tea. We don't know what exactly we had, but it was warm and that's all we cared about. We headed to the train station to catch our 9:30 pm train. Oh, I left out the part where we bought hard bed tickets for the train from Shijiazhuang to Datong which were really great. We got to lay down and get some sleep over our 10 hour trip. BUT I though I either got soft seat tickets or hard bed tickets for our train from Datong to Beijing..... but it turned out that I probably messed up and we ended up with HARD SEAT tickets. Just the word heard seat doesn't really sound pleasant, but it doesn't give enough credit to exactly how hard and how awful they are. Picture really hard school bus seats turned toward each other so that you would be facing the person across from you. Your knees hit their knees; I am not tall and neither are most Chinese people and our knees touch. So just take a second to picture Willie in this situation! People are standing in the aisles because they over fill the hard seat cars. Smoking is allowed so the people across from you who are intertwined in your legs are smoking and blowing it in your face. The tickets are really cheap so the kind of people in these seats don't have much spare money to spend on good seats or an abundance of hygiene products. So anyway, my answer to this situation is to take a dose of Nyquil (thank you sleeping pills). Willie doesn't. I'm am in a semi -sleeping, semi-dreaming, semi-unconscious state; while Willie stays wide awake counting down the minutes.
We arrive in Beijing around 4:30 am. No restaurants are open, we cannot check into our hostel, and there is no 24 hour malls... so we look up a 24 hour massage parlor and head there for a much needed body massage. I have come to realize that nothing sounds sketchier than the phrase "24 hour massage parlor" in China. But we try it anyway. We walk in and the receptionist was asleep on a cot in front of the door. He briefly awakes to say "massage?" and point in an obscure direction. We buy 2 full body massage and are instantly given outfits that are made from the same thin doctor's office cover-ups and scrub nurse hats ( like the ones that my grandma used to use when mowing the grass!!!~ family joke). We really don't even know how to work the clothes or which way they go so we have to ask. We were lucky because we got two workers who were young and who knew a tiny bit of English. It was a fun combination... our groggy Chinese and their basic English. I finally realized how I sound when I ask people really basic and dumb questions in Chinese becasue the girl was asking me the same type of questions in her basic English. Questions like "Do you like apples?" It was an amusing interaction. The massage was alright too.
We decide to head to the hostel and pick up some Subway sandwiches on the way. Shower finally, sleep, and head to Wangfujing Street. This is a very famous street in Beijing that is know for its traditional Chinese foods and shopping. Basically any creature that can fit on a kabob stick is fair game for this street. Stalls sell foods on sticks such as scorpions, cicadas, sea horses, eel, grasshoppers, star fish, and other unknown creatures. Some of the food, upon a closer look, was actually still moving! I have included a video of a live scorpion on a stick. I know I should have tried something but honestly I really already know that I won't like it! It's called "Mind over matter" and my mind is set on never enjoying a nice pair of sea horses or scorpions. Maybe next time... that is always a guilt-free excuse.
The night continues at the Den where there is 5-10 pm happy hour which includes half price pizza and drinks. A personal pizza and beer really is the ultimate reward for a tough day. The next day couldn't have started any better because it started at a restaurant called "Grandma's Kitchen," when do those words ever NOT sound good together. We ate a mixture of pancakes, omelets, fries, and Willie had a hamburger. Its just that we never really get this food, so when the opportunity comes, we have to just have a little of everything! We then explore the park around the Temple of Heaven or Tiantan. This park is really great for people watching. We watched Chinese people do just about every kind of activity from dancing, to playing with yoyo's, to exercising and more. It was fun to watch the types of games they play that are different from games you can find in America. I have included some pictures and a few videos of some of the games; my favorite being the video of the two grown me playing a game that involves one man throwing a large ring and the other catching it around his head! I am almost done writing but I can't let you go without telling you that we had an amazing train ride home! We had comfortable seats, plenty of leg room, and the option to use the restroom! The only problem was that the ride was only 2 hours so it really didn't make up for the 7 hour one into Beijing... We had a great trip and are even happier to be back to our Chinese home!
