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Tuesday 2nd September - day 13
Datong
We get up early and the other 2 girls who were in the room have checked out already, there doesn't seem to be anyone else in the dorms, and only a few workers who appear to live on the other side of the floor. We head to the hanging monastery today. We are advised the public transport is really poor in datong so it's advisable to get a taxi which is $350 round trip (90mins each way which includes a 2 hour waiting time). The hostel calls the taxi for us.
As there's nobody else in the hostel we can't even share the fare but it's still not that much between 2 of us.
The temple is set into the cliff face of heng shan - one of China's 5 sacred daoist mountains. The temple has been built into the mountain wall with the support of wooden pillars, there's what looks like a dam that's been built on the left hand side and water marks along the cliff, that indicate a river once flowed below the temple . We climb upwards for about 10 minuets and enter the temple. It has 40 odd halls, it's wooden facades complete the caves which have been hollowed into the rock. The stairs are so narrow and and the rooms are tiny with small balcony/terraces where you can look out over the canyon. The rooms are all connected by walkways and bridges and there are a few religious halls with various statues of Buddhist and daoist gods.
We spend about a hour exploring the Temple and it's rooms/caves.
We head back to the hostel and get some food from the nearby mall. Nothing's in English so we attempt to order some soups, we get one beef, and one intestine... The intestine gets binned immediately and yas looks like she's going to vomit, we eat what we can and make some travel plans for the next few upcoming weeks. We have a new roommate who is from Barnsley, and unfortunately he snores like a warthog all night. The earplugs I nicked from the gin make their first appearance.
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