We arrived very early in Datong, yet again our train was on time - so far the Chinese trains have all been on time so we have been very impressed. On the way out of the train station a chinese man that had been staring at us (well probably Sarah) walked straight into somebodys suitcase and fell over - it was really funny! Made us laugh anyway, it can get quite intimidating at times everyone staring at you, and they do quite a lot, some have even crashed their bicycles whilst having a look!! After catching a few extra hours sleep and booking some train tickets we decided to go and check out the town.

Datong is not a big city (by Chinese standards) although is one of the smoggiest we have been to. It doesn't help that it is close to a massive coal mine and a couple of huge power stations. The buildings around the city do not add too much beauty to it either! The walk into the centre took us about half an hour and past some very smelly open rubbish skips. We were starving by the time we made it to the centre and stumbled across a very popular local dumpling shop, Shaomai dumplings are the local speciality, stuffed with pork and steamed then served in a tray of ten. You dip them in the local Shanxi vinegar before chomping them down, they were delicious, even better that ten only cost 25p!!

We also saw the Drum Tower, the upper and lower Huayan Temple and managed to find some more scenic streets including a local market, selling everything from fruit and veggies to meat, a little bit of old China left amongst all the new development!

We then had a slow walk home, playing spot the Westerner, we saw none!! Along the way we had a lot of smiles and quite a few times local people would wait for us to pass before nervously saying "hello" when we reply it always brings a smile, sometimes a laugh too. In this respect we have found the Chinese people to be very friendly, even if some of their other manners are somewhat different to ours!

Just as we were about to go out to dinner what initially appeared as a storm came rolling in. The hills went out of sight and it got progressively darker and windier until it was like night-time, a dust storm had arrived. This was crazy, we have never seen anything like it before, pretty scary how quickly it came in too. Because of this we ended up having dinner at the hotel during the rain and thunderstorm that followed the dust before quite an early night.

This morning was much colder than it has been lately which was quite a shock to the system, the wind from last night had died down a little but was cold, although I think it was still 24oc!

The first stop was a Hanging Monastry, it was built into a cliff face 1500 years ago, it is located on another of Taoism's sacred mountains Hang Shan (even though Buddhism, Taoism and Cofunucism where religions here). Originally it was 100m above the ground to protect it from the regular floods in the Jinlong Canyon. However over the centuries the ground level has risen due to the river (now dammed) and it is now only 50m above ground, it still feels very high when you are stood in it and look over the edge and walk along the narrow richerty walkways and stairs!! When it was built the workers climbed to the top of the cliff and abseiled down the other side and dug into the rock, they used big wooden beams sunk 2/3rds into the rock to hold it up. It is remarkable how it has stood the test of time and is very spectacular.

After lunch we went to Yungang Caves, these caves were started in 460AD and took over 60,000 workers over 60 years to complete. They are the earliest Buddha carvings in China The first cave we went in housed the biggest Buddha at 17m high and still in original colours. They built the statues by first carving through a top hole about 20m above ground level and then carved out the statue and a bottom hole at ground levels they went deeper into the cave. They had to do it this way to enable them to see their carving with natural light.

Originally all the large caves were fronted with big wooden temples, which unfortunately have long since gone although the replicas give some idea what it would have been like. Cave 6 was also very impressive with a lot of very detailed bas-reliefs showing the story of the 6th Buddha Siddhartha from birth to enlightenment, some of the carvings were so intricate.

Throughout the site there were loads of carvings some containing alot of colour, but unfortunately some of the statues have been stolen, some have been vandalised and others have just weathered away. At the top of the site also stands portion of the great wall - an added bonus, although it is just a portion made of mud, even so it is still pretty spectacular.

We had a great day today and saw some fantastic things that completely exceeded our expectations. It turns out the enforced change of plan may not have been such a bad thing after all!!

Off to Inner Mongolia's grasslands tomorrow, in search of a yurt!!

Love A&S xxx