Beijing - Datong - Beijing

I'm now in Lhasa but I have seen sop much in the last few days I have to backtrack. I want to write about Tibet and Lhasa as I have just spent the most amazing day here but I guess it's unfair to the all the other beautiful places and they deserve just as much attention as they were absolutely stunning too.
Anyway so Yana, Rojelho and I took our first ever hard seater train to Datong (a 7 hour train ride away from Beijing) and I don't know about the other two but in my head I had images of from indian movies of the train rides where people are sitting on top of each other and the animals on top of them. There were no sleeper seats availabe so I had to take the hard seater. The train set off at 10:15 in the morning and it was actually another great train ride. The other two were in a different carriage and when I first went to my carriage the looks and gestures I got made me feel like I didn't belong there. They were all gesturing to me that I really should be in the sleeper carriage and not in 3rd class seats. And actually it was not as I had imagined at all but actually quite civilized. Instead of wooden seats we had kind of a 'soft' cushion and there was a table in between and a woman sat next to me and an elderly couple on the opposite side. So i had enough space and amazing scenery (parts of the great wall, and everyday village life) to keep me occupied. Then slowly yana and Rojelho moved to my cabin and since he could speak a little bit of chinese he translated. The initial feelings of discomfort were all based on a false sense on my part. The old man sitting opposite me thought I was a 19 year old girl travelling on my own and was just concerned for me. Since then he kept giving me food and staring at me coz 'I was so beautiful':) He even gave a little poke in the arm to check that I was real hehehe.. Anyway as soon as they found out that we spoke English they found the only guy on the whole seater carriages who speke English, brought him to us and the whole carriage gathered around us and listened to the occasional translations and the English that they did not understand.
It was amazing talking to him as he spoke quite good English. He went to a school near the coast where there were many foreign teachers (beach = english teachers:) and he told us that for these foreign teachers who found it too hard to use their chinese names (or couldn't be bothered) all the students had second English names too. His was Peter .....others were Lydia? Mariah? Madona:):) But he wanted to be a tour guide and so he felt quite priviledges that his family was able to pay 8000yuan for him to attend this school. Like most young people he was on his way back to school from his home town...hence the impossible task of buying train tickets in china at the end of August.

So we arrived at Datong in the evening and while we were exiting we walked into a representative for the CITS (China International Travel Service) who was kind of fishing out all the western tourists that were being carried past in the surging crowd. He showed us a tour which would take in the two sights that we came to see. We organised everything with the gent, he even showed us where to stay, a hotel right next to the station. We walked around Datong in the evening, had roasted yam on the street and hot chocolate from Mcdonalds:) and then went back for an early night. We had great views of the city from our room and it was nice just to chill. Yana and Rojelo were so easy to travel with.

Next morning we were at the CITS office at nine in the morning and there was a whole van load of tourists waiting. It was great though coz we met some really nice guys. It's always the same..a whole group of a hundered different nationalities...south africa, turkey, france, italy... and I always love exchanging the thousands of different travel stories. But before that we had a real chinese breakfast at the hotel...dumplings with a yellow, wattery soup, boiled egg, salad and fried bread...wierd but filling.

We set off (not promptly, unlike the trains which are impeccably efficient) towards the Hanging Monastery, this lies 75km southeast of Datong and took a couple of hours. This monastery is built perilously on sheer cliffs above Jinlong Canyon. It used to reside 100m above the river bed but over time the river has deposited silt, soil and rocks in the canyon (before being dammed) so now the monastery is only 50m up. The monastery dates back more than 1400 years (pretty old) and is resting on beams that are drilled 2/3 of the way into the cliff face with the rest sticking out supporting the buildings. The buildings contain bronze, iron and stone statues of Gods and Buddha’s from Chinas three principal religions/philosophies, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. We walked and climbed all over the monastery following our tour group leader as she described the meaning behind a lot of the statues and artefacts within the different rooms. I was a little disappointed to find out that the monastery literally hangs out on the cliff edge as I thought maybe they would have excavated within the cliff, the part that we see being a front for a much bigger structure within. After a quick lunch we hopped back aboard the minibus and headed back towards the town. Yungang Caves lie 16km west of Datong. These caves have been cut into the cliffs and contain over 50,000 Buddhist statues (also carved out of the cliffs); they also stretch for about 1km. Our tour guide showed us around the best caves (~caves 5-20) and described the treasures within each. The first one we entered had sitting carved from the stone a colossal seated Buddha over 17m high. Also every wall within the cave was also intricately carved leaving no blank stone anywhere. This pretty much set the tone for every cave we entered. Each had its own story to tell, some were better preserved than others but all were amazing. As expected the light within the caves was quite dim and trying to take pictures of huge statues when you’re standing at their feet in the gloom is quite difficult so no photos could really do them justice. Luckily one of the caves further down had completely eroded away leaving the huge carved Buddha out in the open, just perfect for taking photos. Our tour guide joked that they called him China's foreign minister as there were photos of him everywhere, in China and abroad. After the caves we made our way back to the bus and were dropped back off at the train station.
It was great coz all of us went out to a local restaurant and had a great meal for only a pound each. We were stuffed and tired and ready for bed.
Next day, I said goodbye to Yana and Rojelho...the trouble with travelling with different people...too many goodbyes...went to see the famous 9 dragon wall which was built for the prince and then bought some chinese paintbrushes. It was time to head back to Beijing and this time I had a hard sleeper...6 beds in a cabin, 3 on each side and I had the lower one so I didn't have to climb up and down all the time. Unlike the Russian trains though, these cabins have no doors so there is a much more communal feel and atmosphere to them. Gao Bei (returning to her university) and Helen (returning to her teaching job) both lived in Datong and had been visiting families and were on their way back at the end of their holiday. Both spoke great English and again fed me and looked after me and wanted to take me home. But I had my big back pack at the hostel and mypermit for tibet to pick up so i promised them that when I returned to Beijing I'd definitely go stay with them. Helen has even invited me to go to her place and stay during the Olympics next year...guess that's my next visit to China sorted.