The Hanging Temple and Yuangang caves near Datong

On Friday evening an entire bus load of American grad school girls arrived at my hostel... but I got on a train to Inner Mongolia...

It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Datong; the English guys I had been hanging out with here in Beijing were both leaving this weekend and I figured I should do something while I have some free time (next weekend SA will be playing in the World Cup Cricket final so I can't possibly travel then!). I always thought Datong was a bit far flung, but then realised I could do it between two overnight trains.

My first train left Beijing at 11:40pm on Friday night, arriving in Datong at 7am. I managed to get a berth in a soft sleeper compartment so got a good rest overnight and was thus able to head straight out on a tour. The first stop was at the remarkable Hanging Temples about an hour and a half out of the city. These 1500 year old temples literally hang off a cliff face above a riverbed. The river was apparently very prone to flooding (a Chinese version of Laingsburg...), and the flooding was obviously caused by dragons, so the temples were built in order that prayers could be offered to the dragons. Logical enough.

The amazing temples towering above.

I guess the Ancient Chinese weren't too sure what religion Dragons were; the temples contain icons from Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Confucionism.

Beautiful.

The old riverbed is now a garden after a dam proved more effective than prayer...

After the Hanging Temple my tour took me to the Yuangang Grottoes just outside Datong. This amazing string of 54 caves containing more than 55,000 statues were built from as far back as 400AD. Dug into a line of cliffs and filled with some incredibly intricate carvings, they a truly wonderous place to visit. The older caves are more rough-hewn, but the most striking, with massive Buddhas looming above you. The more recent caves, from around 650AD, are dug deeper into the mountain and contain much more intricately carved scenes. These scenes depict such things as the life of Buddha, but also contain traces of Hindu and Greek mythology.

Looking east from outside cave 18 towards caves 5 and 6.

The incredible Buddhas carved around cave 18.

Amazing though it is, this isn't even the biggest Buddha, it was just in daylight so I could photograph it properly...

Inside the spectacular cave 6.

Trying to capture some more of cave 6 proved difficult with so little light...

But photos can't do it justice anyway...

My return train left last night at 11pm, so I had a long wait in Datong, and I was only able to get a hard sleeper ticket as China has the irritating situation where you cannot buy return tickets until you arrive at the place. I got back to my hostel at 6am this morning. Think I might go back to bed now...