After a nice night in the soft sleeper compartment, we got traditional chinese breakfast and a full day cab tour afterwards.
Our first point of interest was the Yungang Grottoes. The rock-cut architecture is astonishing and the site is one of the three most famous ancient Buddhist sculptural places of whole China.
A) Datong Yungang Grottoes 雲崗石窟
Just 16 km out of Datong this visit took us some hours until we got back to our cabdriver who started a wild journey to the Hanging Monastery. We came across the chinese outback with sections where no real road was available. The landsacpe was really beautiful and totally different compared to the atmosphere of a one of the biggest cities of the world – Beijing. The Hanging Monastery in front of a big dam is really worth to take the journey!
B) Hanging Monastery 懸空寺
The trip advisor says that this temple is built more than 1,500 years ago, and it’s notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it includes Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements. According to the history of Shangshen Mountain, construction of the temple was by only one man, a monk named Liao Ran (了然). Over a history of more than 1,600 years many repairs and extension led to its present day scale. This temple is over 50 meters tall.
After this awesome trip we continued our journey back to Datong finding a place to stay for the night and got out a Club in Datong. This was really amazing because we were the only foreigners there except of two Italians. There was a strict security control and even some kind of military police standing next to the dance floor. The next day we had some time to see the attractions of the city which were explained by a really nice Chinese guy who we met a temple. He showed us around of his city and explained many things like building of the city hall.
In the afternoon we got back to the train station and the journey to Baotou began. We got hard seaters and we covered by our new Chinese friends. A really nice experience even if the communication was quite hard because our lack of Chinese skills. After some more hours we arrived in Baotou and after some time we got a place to stay for the night. Next morning we started a journey to the Resonant Sand Gore in Baotou. Therefore we also crossed the yellow river. Resonant Sand Gorge in Baotou is nice place to stay for some hours but of course very touristic.
C) Resonant Sand Gorge in Baotou
Baotou is nice but there are not that many attractions to see. After having a great dinner we took the night train back to Beijing. It was an awesome trip with the Highlights in and around Datong! It’s definitely worth to go there! More trips around China will follow!
