A weekend trip to Datong - Shanxi , China

We took a flight Saturday morning to Datong. Reached at 8.30 in the morning.

Our plan was to check in to the hotel and find a tour company through the hotel to take us around

We got in to a RED taxi , a smiling old man as the driver, who showed us some catalogues on sightseeing in Datong.He agreed to take us to the Hanging Monastery, then the Yungang Grottoes and back to the hotel for 400 rmb.

We thought it was a good deal, because we read that the Monastery was quite far from the city and this also meant we could use the Sunday to just relax at the hotel before getting back to Beijing.

Hanging Monastery (Xuan Kong Si): The temple is quite far from the city centre. It took us an hour and a half by cab from the Airport.

A Hanging Temple! You would wonder why would anyone in the world build something like it! Looking from below it really looks like the temple is hanging in the air.

The climb is quite steep, more difficult with the narrow steps.It's really a wonder that the temple survived for so many years.

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and then continued our journey to the Yungang Grottoes.

Yungang Grottoes (UNESCO Heritage site):

The Yungang Grottoes in itself is worth the trip to Datong. Large Caves carved out to house the giant Buddhas. We took the shuttle van to the entrance of the caves.

We entered the 5th and 6th caves - photographs are forbidden, but the security guy told us he would step out for 5mins and allow us to quicky click the pics we like.

We then walked ahead to the other caves. Each one was better than the other. We were in awe of the place.

We were heading to our taxi when it started drizzling, we then headed to our hotel(Tiangui) .

Sunday morning we were lazing around, Breakfast was included with the room fare so stuffed ourselves and just went for a walk around the hotel area.

Our train to Beijing was at 2.30 in the afternoon. We got on the train and had Cup Noodles for Lunch. The scenery on the way back is beautiful. Hills, grass, the blue sky.
The train journey is about 6 hours and we reached Beijing west at 8.30 in the evening.

A good break, Datong is a nice place for quick weekend trip.

P.S : If you are the adventurous type, you cant try out "tutou"Rabbit head which is quite a speciality here. We didn't dare! :-)