Day 7 we rushed to the train station and found our cramped 'hard' seats and with plenty of people staring we read our books. The six hour journey took us to Datong. The hostel we booked was about an hour walk away so the well known Mr Gao (local travel agent mentioned in many travel books and online blogs) found us and after checking a few hotels ourselves we went to the one he told us about. It was a dump! Yet it was cheap and close to the train station and above the office where we booked our tour to the Yungang Caves and Hanging Monastry. We ate some food in the cafe on the corner of our street- getting a bit too comfortable with eating anything anywhere!

Day 8 was the day we went on a tour, it cost a fortune for chinese standards but we had little choice. Our bus was at least full of western tourists so we chatted away the jouney toward the Yungang caves. These caves are built into the side of a mountain and there are around 45 of them. They were all carved mainly for worship and enclosed many buddhas- big and small, and told ancient stories. The old ones built by imperial families were magnificent and grand. After 2 hours there we drove to the shady looking service station cafe for lunch. Very traditional and nice food filled us up and we moved onto the hanging monastry. Its a temple built on the side of the cliff and is split into three sections, the first is built on brick the second two magically hang. The many reasons why this was done still bemuse us but it was stunning to see. It felt almost like a fun house as you walked around it and was brilliant. When we got back we got some dumplings from the cafe and sat with two lads we met from the trip before they left for their train.

Day 9 We walked down to the city centre and it felt like walking around a war ridden city with lots to remind you off the CCP days. We found a park which was nice to walk through before entering the mass construction site again, where we walked up the main street to Red Flag Square, which was empty. Next to this there many purpose built 'tradiotanal style' streets still empty. It would be interesting to see how this coal based industrial city transforms into a tourist haven once finished. In all of this we found the 9 Dragon Screen. We paid to get in and what a let down, the once beautifuly glazed tiled wall was now dusty and dirty with cracked and damaged tiles. We could still see the dragons and they were great but its a shame what it has become. We walked back and a lad gave us a McDonalds voucher which turned out cheaper than local food so we cracked. After a measly 9 days we caved and ate a Big Mac and chips. We then had 6 hours to burn before train so sat in hotel lobby and planned more of our trip.