track our trek

at the suggestion of an israeli couple we met, we decided to skip the 12 hour train ride to xi'an and the terra cotta warriors in favor of a shorter trip to datong to see the yungang caves. we headed for the train station early saturday morning in search of the "foreigners ticketing office" mentioned in lonely planet. apparently that office has closed since the book's publication, so we wound up in line with throngs of chinese, struggling to get tickets on the first available train to datong...not bad...we got hard sleeper tickets on the morning train. the quarters were very tight, and we scored the very top bunks (third level up where you can't even sit upright!) because we weren't aggressive enough pushing through the crowds to the front of the line. no orderly lining up here like in japan...it's every man for himself here...we saw one man throw his granddaughter over his shoulder and elbow his way to the front of the line like an offensive lineman!...6 hours through some pretty amazing dry mountainous landscape and a pretty comfy nap & we arrived in datong around 6pm... we were pounced on at the top of the escalator by a man wearing a CITS badge and ushered into his office..."you need a hotel? you need a tour? here...sit. i'll get you a room...there's a tour tomorrow morning to the yungang caves and hanging monastery...give me your money & i'll show you your hotel." yikes! give us a second to think, please! we went along with him...a bit wary of getting scammed of course, but he closed up the office behind us, handed us a slip of paper, pointed us across the square to our hotel, and told us to be back at the train station in the morning to take the tour. we were sure we'd walk into the hotel and be charged again, but they accepted our slip of paper w/ no questions and escorted us up to our room! we splurged (380yuan) on a 4 star for a night after our week in the dingy hostel. it was worth it for the yummy included breakfast alone the next morning!
then off to meet the tour group. we upgraded our package to include all the entrance fees and lunch and hopped in the bus with our group of 15 or so mostly german speaking tourists. a 2 hour bumpy ride later (i was in the front passenger seat...yikes) we made it to the hanging monastery...a 1500 year old monastery built into a cliff to avoid floods. monks climbed to the top of the mountain & suspended themselves from rope to excavate and insert the support beams 2/3 of the way into the mountain! at the time, it hung 100m above the ground, but over the years the floor of the canyon has risen 50m from sediment and rock brought by floods! in the afternoon, we saw the yungang caves...a sandstone mountain w/ 45 caves carved w/ some 45,000 buddhas! it is really beautiful...and overwhelming to think of the 40,000 people it took 64 years to build the largest buddha!