Datong

Since the Chinese government decided to change its holidays and give people back the traditional Chinese holidays, we had a 3-day weekend for Ching Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day. Alice, Kumi, Reshma and I decided to hit Datong, in northern Shanxi Province, to see the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery.

Friday April 4: Friday was a full day. We arrive in Datong via overnight train early in the morning. We visited the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery and made our way to Mt. Hengshan.

To see Datong and travel like the locals, we attempted to take the bus to the caves. The instructions sounded simple and clear. Take bus #4 from the train station to the last stop, then take bus #3 to the caves. After riding around on the #4 for a while and realizing that we were passing by the same thing… the bus driver told us we had MISSED the last stop (didn’t even know that was possible – you think they’d announce the last stop or something). But luckily, the man was so nice that he flagged down a bus going in the opposite direction for us and then told us to run onto the other bus in the middle of a busy intersection. We scurried off into oncoming traffic and managed to make our way to the other bus in one piece. We did eventually make it to the caves without any more trouble.

The Yungang Caves, one of 4 Buddhist Caves in China, is a series of over 40 caves filled with Buddhist art and sculptures, some dating as far back as the Wei Dynasty, more than 1,500 years ago. The really old stuff looked merely like hollow creepy skeletons, having been beaten by the elements over hundreds of years, but the less weathered stuff were stunning – colorful Buddha statues and intricate wall frescos covered the walls of the approximately 20 caves that we could view. Sadly, a layer of coal dust and pollution coated a lot of the artwork but it is impressive nonetheless.

We went in search of an old, abandoned section of the Great Wall near the caves afterwards but never found it, so we returned to Datong for a quick meal before venturing to the Hanging Monastery, about 2 hours outside Datong. We passed out on the bus and woke up when we reached Hunyuan, the closest town. They dropped us off by a gas station in the middle of nowhere and a cab driver took us to the monastery. The Hanging Monastery got its name from its precarious location, perched on the side of a cliff on skinny, long wooden poles. It is simply amazing the structure has not toppled over! The monastery is actually quite small (no monks here!), with tiny walkways and narrow stairs connecting different rooms on multiple floors. It is literally hanging right off the cliff. The monastery is clearly the main attraction in this area – people seriously would not come out here if it weren’t for the monastery.

We climbed up to the top of a dam next to the monastery where we found a pile of coal. Datong is in coal country, so there was a lot of coal around. Kumi picked out a chunk for Sabrina who couldn’t make the trip and then carried it around for the rest of the trip. We spent the night in Mt. Hengshan, where we stayed in the home conveniently converted into a hotel of some local residents. We slept together like local villagers, on a kang bed in a room that was heated by coals. There’s a long pipe that’s supposed to filter smoke out of the room, which didn’t work fabulously. We were worried that we’d freeze to death in the mountains, so we figured coal smoke was better than being freezing. When the coals seemed to have burned down really low, we snuck outside and chopped us some more chucks of coal to throw into the stove, which was located in the ground. We got caught by the lady at the hotel who came knocking on our door. Oops. Maybe coal is really expensive (but there’s so much of it there!!). She warned us not to put in more coal because the room would start to smell like coal (which it did – oops again). But between the coal stove and the huge pile of blankets we were actually quite comfortable and the evening felt like quite an adventure.

Saturday, April 5: Mt. Hengshan and Datong

We woke up the next morning way after sunrise (which we went up to the mountains originally to see) to soothing Buddhist music streaming from the temple located practically right about the hotel we were staying at. Then we climbed Mt. Hengshan, which was dotted with temples all over. When we made it down the mountain, we grabbed lunch at a local place and called for our driver to pick us up. The hotel told him where we were but we had no idea how the hotel knew. It’s like they were tracking us or something. It was very odd.

We made it back to Datong and found this area where there were little snacks and local stores by one of the major temples. We sampled all sorts of different snacks – from tofu to bread (lots of different kinds). And to pamper ourselves, we had our hair washed and blown out at a salon.

Sunday, April 6: Nine Dragon Screen

We visited the Nine Dragon Screen – the largest ceramic tiled wall of 9 dragons. But it was literally just a wall. There was nothing else. So we just relaxed in the courtyard there until lunchtime where we finally went to this baozi restaurant we had been passing by and wanting to try. Their buns or baozi were indeed delicious. It was a yummy meal. Then it was back to Beijing on the train.