Hello again!
Soo...we spent the last day in Pingyao walking the walls, checking out some old skool banks and visiting the Shaunglin temple...For the longest while I kept thinking that the drivers of these little buggies powered by the front-section of a motorbike were trying to tout our business to take us to the Shaolin temple...which be a good 200+ KM away!
The temple itself was very pleasant...and very different to what I had seen before. The statues looked like they had had their eyes gauged out though...which was a little unnerving!
Then we got a sleeper to Datong, in Shanxi Province. We arrived as the birds were waking and the sun was rising. Now, I'd heard nothing but dreadful things about this Datong...along the lines of: The arse of the world, hello-hole, filthy, smoggy, dusty, dirty...and and and. So I had warned mum, and was imagining a scene not much different to that which welcomed Mon Ti and I in Huaihua, Hunan Province, as we were trying to make our escape from Fenhuang in June. However, when we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, you can immediately tell it's not the most attractive of cities (the Lonely Planet categorically states that it will not win any beauty pageants), and the contents of your nose IS black when you blow it, even after only a few hours of being there. BUT...it wasn't as bad as all that. It fact, it wasn't all that much different to Muping, the town closest to Kunyu Shan.
We got ourselves signed up to a tour to take us to both the Hanging Monastery and the Caves and after hanging around until 9am, trying our best to smile through the public "starings" we were getting, set off.
The Hanging Monastery was VERY cool. It was built alongside a river that used to flood and cause all sorts of distress. At first the Taoists thought that they could put a monastery there to appease the gods and stop the floods. Didn't work. They had to move the monastery higher and higher up the cliff face (used to be 100m up, now is only 50m or something, due to silt build-up in the valley etc). Still the floods came. So they invited both Buddhism and Confucianism to share the same monastery (unheard of). Still didn't work. Soo...they built a dam. Haha. Make what you will of that!

The caves were absolutely phenomenal...I'm not sure which I prefer...Longmen, or those outside of Datong. I am still stunned that humans could create such wonders so long ago!

They REALLY liked their buddhas...hehe.

Got some pics...and have got lots more of other things, but canny seem to upload them at the mo...think there is a small issue with my memory card. Ooer.

Having been so terrified of what lay in wait for us in the infamous Datong, we got a night train straight back outta there to Beijing the very same night...and so here we are! At the most expensive hostel in the world! But it is pretty nice...and the bathroom is AWESOME (didn't think I could ever get so excited about a bathroom). And it's spitting distance from the Forbidden City.
Lots and lots to do, and only 5 days left! Eeek!
Lots love and stuff
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