May 2nd
Back on the coach with our guides, Gary and An, and heading off to Datong, with two stops on the way. We passed through Datong on the Trans-Siberian (Mongolian…Manchurian) train some days…weeks? ago, and here we are heading north again. The countryside is beautiful, we drive through valleys with terraced hills on either side and in the distance hills stacked up in the mist behind each other, the stuff of Chinese paintings.
Our first stop was at the Buddhist Monastery built precariously into the side of a cliff. It’s easily the most fragile thing I’ve seen – especially as the ancient structure is supported under its base by long poles which seem to teeter dangerously on crumbling areas of the cliff. There are lots of rules and regulations for those visitors to the site who want to make the journey up countless steps to the rickety walkways. I didn’t venture as I got an attack of vertigo on the second set of steps….
The monastery was originally lower down in the Jinlong Canyon but raised several times to higher spots on the cliff in order to escape the floods which would race down the canyon. Farther up the river, which now flows quite serenely, you can see the massive dam being built to hold back flood waters. The monastery is built on the side of one of Taoism’s sacred mountains, Heng Shan. All around are barren hills until the road winds down finally to the plains below where there’s more vegetation and farming.
Not too far away we came to the Yungang Caves or Grottoes. These are either the earliest, or among the earliest, Buddhist carvings in China, and are absolutely fantastic – I could have spent much longer here, just wandering around and taking (even more) photographs! There were originally 21 caves or grottoes, fronted with wooden buildings which have now largely disappeared. They were built over a 60-year period with the largest Buddha (out of about 50,000 altogether) about 17 metres high and the smallest about 2.5 cm. Lots of lovely buildings on the site, making it into a good attraction with plenty of amenities. Also loads of stallholders, all selling similar things, but a lot of fun haggling and getting pretty little bracelets, jade (soapstone) carvings and the like.
This was the last stop of the day before arriving at our 4-star hotel for the night. The Datong Hotel, built in only about 1974 but to an older, more traditional template! Our rooms – twin again – were very spacious and the foyer was elegant, marble and fairly plush. We decided not to explore what seemed the business area of town for other restaurants, and went to the hotel dining room instead. With about ten staff catering for four of us. We ordered too many dishes – they were so cheap that I thought they would be little side portions. They weren’t. After eating about half the food on the table and feeling fit to burst, they brought about three more, including a heaped platter of egg and noodles and another of spring rolls. The whole thing cost us a tenner each – including wine – and we could barely waddle to bed. The next morning, after a very good breakfast which was wasted on me, we left for Beijing – passing a woman walking round a tree doing a sort of tai chi and a group of employees doing their morning keep-fit exercises on the pavement outside work. I seriously think we need a bit of that.
Patamateria 