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Datong
Tuesday 10th November
It took us 6 hours on an overnight train to get from Beijing to Datong. When we arrived at 6.30 in the morning we discovered the city was buried 2 foot under snow! As promised in the Rough Guide, a rep for the CITS (tourist info) found us in the station and took us to his office. We were joined by a lovely girl called Marion from Switzerland and together we got a 4 bed dorm.
We had come to Datong especially to visit 2 sights: the Hanging Temple and the Yungang Caves. The CITS rep informed us that the temple was a long drive, but we could wait till 9 and see if the mountain roads would be passable. We ruled this out, as driving was traumatic at the best of times! Instead, we hired a taxi and set off to the caves.
The taxi journey was hilarious. Unlike in England when it snows, here everyone gets on with it. Our driver was completely crazy and fearless. We couldn't stop driving or the car might not start again, so on the way we managed to hit 3 people. As we craned our heads to check no one was seriously hurt (they weren't, probably just wing-mirror shaped bruises) he seemed oblivious. However, when he caught sight of someone falling off their bike/moped, he would laugh heartily and point.
The journey to Datong, despite not being able to get to the temple, was not wasted. The caves were incredible. The statues carved into sandstone cliff, ranged in size from the colossal to the minute. Each cave you entered had a unique character.
Altogether there were over 51 000 statues to take in. The weather however was not on our side and although it was lovely to see the caves surrounded by snow, we kept the pace brisk as we went from cave to cave.
On returning to Datong all we could think about was getting warm. Our hostel looked very different to how it had appeared through sleepy eyes that morning. The room was ice cold, with cigarette ash in the bin, dirty sheets etc. The shower was in a broom cupboard under the sink and the toilets... best not go into details here! So we decided to get out of the hostel until bedtime.
In a moment of weakness we opted for an Italian restaurant! It was warm and cosy, and they let us play cards for 3 hours after we finished eating. We caught an extremely crowded bus back to the hostel, with locals teaching us Chinese as we crawled along. Datong is a fairly ugly city, but the people are great!!! Everywhere we went people wanted to help us.
We were in bed by 9 and happy when the alarm went at 6.30 for our train to Pingyao.
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