Hanging about in Caves
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2004
1
17
19
Trip End
Oct 10, 2004
Datong,
China
Saturday, October 2, 2004
Clay lies still, but blood's a rover; Breath's aware that will not keep. Up, lad: when the journey's over then there'll be time enough to sleep
- A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
Coal
From Xian it was north once again to Datong, in Shanxi province, an ugly (sorry Datong), industrial walled city situated in the far north near the border with inner Mongolia and only about 250km west of Beijing. I knew I was further north than I'd previously been in China because the temperature difference between here and Xian was striking. I found myself having to wrap up for the first time since getting to China. Maybe if it was warmer and a bit, umm, I dunno.. sunnier. Yep, if that was the case then maybe Datong itself might have looked a tad more 'appealing'. It was anything but, and the main reason is coal. The city produces a third of all China's coal and it dominates the modern city - it sits in donkey carts and lorries that judder up and down the main roads, it stains the buildings black and it swirls in the air you breathe, helping to make Datong, not surprisingly, one of China's dirtiest and most polluted cities. While the city proper doesn't have any attractions of note (unless you class a huge locomotive factory as an attraction), it is amid the blasted landscape of modern industrial China surrounding the city - endless coal mines and power stations - where you will find some marvellous ancient sites, remnants of the city's glory days as the capital of two Han Chinese dynasties. The reason I stopped of in Datong was to visit the Buddhist grottoes of the Yungang caves and the Hanging Temple of Heng Shan, 16km and 65km from Datong respectively.
The helpful CITS guys
Getting off the train from Xian I was greeted by a train station that seemed almost deserted. It was a typical Chinese train station; big, characterless and cold. But it was eerily quiet and nothing seemed open, including ticket. That prevented me getting my next train ticket, something I had gotten into the habit of doing as soon as I arrived in a city. It's then that the CITS came to the rescue. Remember how, in my DIY Logistics paragraph of my Chengdu entry, I spoke about buying train tickets yourself and making your own way to nearby sights etc? Well, the convenience of the service offered by the CITS office in Datong train station put my DIY'ing on hold for a day. Through them I purchased a day tour for the aforementioned Yungang caves and the Hanging Temple of Heng Shan. Considering the temple is 65km from Datong I'm not really sure if making it there under my own steam was a logistic or economical option but I'd like to think not. The tour was reasonably priced, especially when you consider it included an English speaking guide, transport to and from both locations and lunch at the temple. And because I bought their tour I was allowed to stash my bags in their office and they agreed to have a ticket for the overnight train ready for me when I got back from the tour in the late afternoon. Such nice people. I guess there's an exception to every rule folks and while I'd generally avoid the CITS they can, at times, be very helpful.
The Yungang Caves
The Yungang caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are ancient Buddhist temple grottoes carved into the side of a sandstone cliff of the Wuzhou Shan mountains, about 16 km south-west of Datong, in the valley of the Shi Li river. The caves themselves are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and are the 1st, grandest and best preserved of the three major Buddhist grottoes in China (the other two being The Longmen caves in Henan province and The Mogao caves in Gansu province). They were started in 400AD, at the time of a Buddhist revival, and construction petered out around 525AD. The artistry displayed in the carvings is unsurpassed in China and the labour involved is no less impressive, requiring as many as 40,000 workmen. Most of the caves were made by first hollowing out a section at the top of the cliff, then digging into the rock, down to the ground and out, leaving two holes, one above the other. In total 50 caves house some amazing carvings across a 1km span of cliffs, some in better condition than others.
The Hanging Temple of Heng Shan
After the caves we hopped back on the bus for the longish drive to the Taoist holy mountain of Heng Shan to view its Hanging Temple, an amazing structure that clings perilously halfway up the side of a sheer cliff face, propped up on long wooden stilts anchored to the ledges below. It was built more than 1400 years ago and is unique not only for its location but because it includes Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements, displaying statues of the 3 religions. I guess it doesn't want to offend and wants to appeal to all. It Temple really is a sight...... and best appreciated from a distance. The swarms of tourists who slowly snake around its one-way walkways and stairwells turn the whole experience of visiting the site into a bit of a claustrophobe nightmare.
The Crash
One the way back to Datong from Heng Shan we saw first hand the deadly consequences of the Chinese penchant for reckless driving on narrow, winding mountain roads. Impatience got the better of a minivan driver who, not wanting to wait behind a slowly moving coal (what else) truck, decided to overtake on a blind corner only to be met by another oncoming coal truck. We came upon the accident mere seconds after the moment of impact and while I didn't get a clear look at the driver of the minivan, fellow passengers who did said he was badly trapped in the twisted wreckage of the car and probably dead.
The crash made me appreciate getting back to Datong in one piece, where I hung round for the evening train departure for my final stop in China, and where it all stared, Beijing.
