Datong

It has been a moment of since my last blog post… And to be honest, it just of being lazy to write J

I did a two days trip to city called Datong, it’s (not more than) around 400 km West from Beijing, easily accessible by train as most of the bigger cities in China. Datong is definitely not the most popular tourist attraction point in China, which made it very interesting place to visit. During the whole few days I saw maybe around 5 foreign people and obviously this lack of foreigner influenced on prices also… For example staying in five star hotel junior suite paying 25 euros for a night – not bad! Or I had a haircut that cost me 2 euros. Datong is also known as “city of the coal” as it is one of the main coal producers in China. There was few huge coal mines that could be seen from distance, but the way how it actually realized was the amount of trucks fully loaded with coal transporting it to the other parts of China – Hip hip hooray green energy!

There was two main things I wanted to see in Datong: Hanging monastery and Yungang Grottoes, but actually managed to see much more than that. On the morning arriving Datong, the day started for seeking breakfast: Bao chis (steamed buns with various fillings) were a good option as usual. While eating breakfast a local guy came to talk and introducing himself as a local guide. By being curious and listening what he had to tell and suggest the two day tour itinerary was completed: First day, see Northern section of great wall and some local village and second day go to see Hanging monastery and Yungang Grottoes.

With our tour guide (“Simon”) we took a local bus to the some small town outside of Datong, and I really mean a local bus: more like a minibus which didn’t seem to have a real schedule as it left when it was full and stopped on the way places when people told it to stop. After a bit more than hour long ride in a bus, it reached the town – surely there are not many foreigners there as it felt that as walking through the town everyone stopped whatever they were doing and stared, even some cars slowed down – even stopped to stare. The Great Wall Northern sections was built over there but ruins only left, but now I have been standing on the border of Inner-Mongolia.

There we continued to the old fortress which was now an area where some farmers were living, we were even very lucky to visit one of the farmers house. A really simple house: Two rooms only, no running water or heating, but still kind of everything you need and the man seemed to be really happy of his life in there. Like it is said that China always surprises somehow, so it happened again while we were taking another bus (normal size) back to the Datong. It was really full and there were no seats for all so we needed to stand almost whole trip and finally when bus got closer to the city and some people get out, the one reason for lack of space in the bus revealed: There was a cage full of pigeon at the floor of the bus… Gourmet dinner for someone or just for…hmm.. fun? And which made it even more hilarious that the whoever had put those pigeons in the bus were not there as at one bus stop a man just entered the bus and picked pigeons with him.

Second day after a well slept night Simon came to a hotel for a pick up with a driver so the journey to Hanging monastery could start. The name “Hanging monastery” comes from the way the place is built. Monastery is built on the side of the cliffs and supported by using wooden pillars so it kind of looks like it is “hanging.” A very beautiful small place, but definitely not for those who are afraid of highs as the peak outside from monastery revealed almost straight drop down and the fact that you were basically standing over nothing. But as the monastery has been hanging around there more than 1500 years, I guess it still will keep hanging there for a while. It is an architectural wonder but also only existing temple in China that combines all three traditional Chinese religions: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.

 It was a warm day so thank god there was no need to use public transportations (if there even were any?) as sitting in the car half-awake and half-asleep was a great option to spend distances between places. Because Datong is a border city to Inner-Mongolia in the past it has been often being under attacks of Mongolians (or other Northern tribes) so farmers have at that time dug caves in order to provide them safe place to escape in the case of attacks. Still even on these days there are farmers who are living in those caves, we met one. An old man with half of teeth missing maybe around age of 80. He spoke some very very traditional dialect as even our tour guide could not understand completely what he was saying. This one the local house day before has been really showing a simple way of Chinese living in countryside.

Then the second main attraction, Yungang Grottoes. It is considered as UNESCO World Heritage site built also around 1500 years ago providing an excellent example of rock cut architecture. The area covers around 250 grottoes which have around 50 000 Buddha statues, few huge ones and thousands of small ones. I can just imagine how much patience it is needed to carve all those things especially when thinking about that time tools and techniques. It took around few hours to walk through the area, although I didn't count did I saw all those 250 grottoes or did I miss some, but I guess it doesn't matter even if I did. Then our tour guide drove us back to the Datong to drop us of. It was time to say goodbye to him, a really friendly and polite guy indeed. Before it was time to catch a night train again, we enjoyed a super delicious meal which was also much cheaper than here in Beijing. I would really recommend to visit Datong, it was overall very positive experience.