We arrived in China at 7:30 in the morning; our first stop was the northern city of Datong.
Datong
Location: Northern China, Shanxi province.
Famous for: The Hanging Temple and the Yungang Caves.
Within 20 minutes of our arrival in Datong, we managed to book ourselves a room in a nearby hostel, to secure a place on a tour leaving within the hour, and to be put in a taxi heading for the nearest ATM so that we could withdraw some local currency. There was certainly no chance of easing ourselves into China gently!!
Our tour began with fifteen Western tourists being squeezed into a mini-bus designed for Chinese tourists; the previous jostling for luggage space we were all used to was swapped for the struggle to fit fifteen pairs of long legs in between tightly packed seats. Our first stop was the “Hanging Temple”; an extraordinary sight of a temple clinging perilously to a precipice on one of China’s five holy mountains of Taoism.
The Hanging Temple.
The temple is located 14 meters up a sheer cliff face, propped up on long-wooden stilts anchored to ledges; it was originally built as a place of worship to the Gods to protect nearby villages from a ‘dragon’. The valley in which it is situated was prone to flooding (before a dam was built); floods are a symbol of a resident dragon and hence the source of the locals need for religious protection.
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Exploring the temple.
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Long narrow wooden walkways and staircases connect the various tiers and rooms which make up the temple.
There are two Chinese symbols painted on a stone below the temple, meaning ‘great sight’; the understatement left by an eminent Chinese poet.
The temple jutting out of the cliff.
Our second stop was the Yungang Caves; a maginificent set of Buddhist grottoes carved into the side of a sandstone cliff. Built around 400 A.D., the caves contain over 51,000 depictions of Buddha and are reported to be the grandest and best-preserved grottoes in China.
This 27 metre high Buddha casts an imposing figure in his cave.
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From the outside the grottoes are an impressive sight.
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Some of the carvings were extremely well preserved despite their exposure to the elements.
We spent the better part of the afternoon admiring and strolling through the impressive caves before returning to our hostel for a much-needed rest, shower and a change of clothes (our first since leaving Mongolia). We dined that night in the closest and most accessible restaurant we could find, the ‘California Beef Noodle Bar’. This is actually a chain of restaurants which borrows heavily from Mcdonalds and KFC branding - it has a logo that looks suspiciously like Chinese Colonel Saunders (aka KFC). Ordering from the printed English menu was an adventure; attempts at getting rice dishes resulted in a loud ‘NO!’ from the waitress. Eventually we worked out that after she had said NO about four times, she would then accept our order. After our meal we gladly retired to our bed after an eventful first day in China, alarm clocks were set for our 8:50 train to Beijing the following morning.
Beijing
Location: Northern China (Bei - Jing literally translates as Northern - Capital).
Famous for: Capital of China, Tiananmen Square and Peking duck.
We arrived at the Xi Zhan station around lunchtime and were soon swept along with the bustling crowds; we took a taxi to a central guesthouse conveniently located 200 meters from Tiananmen Square. We ventured out to explore the city and soon purchased a city map and an essential Chinese phrasebook. The city center is a mix of wide busy boulevards and narrow crowded side streets (known as hutangs); on both, bicycles, cars and buses jostle for position whilst trying (or not) to avoid the mass of pedestrians who seem to appear from all directions.
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Night markets sell a variety of delicacies from frogs legs to starfish to goat's testicles; while Nikki opts for a simple bowl of dumplings!
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The city has an extremely modern feel, with new buildings and skyscrapers towering over surprisingly clean streets. There is a definite air of preparation for the forthcoming 2008 Olympics which we have no doubt will be a great time to be in the city. Beijing streets are exceptionally noisy - and at times overwhelmingly so after the quiet deserted plains of Mongolia - but this adds to the feeling of energy and vibrancy which the city exudes.
We found a refuge from the bustling streets in the form of the Temple of Heaven - a garden area containing the altars and temples used by generations of emperors to worship the Gods and pray for good harvests. Like our fellow tourists we tried out the famous ‘echo wall’, a perfectly built circular wall which allows you to have a conversation with someone fifty meters away as if they were standing beside you.
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Eric explores the temple and tries out the 'echo wall'.
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On a misty gray day the Temple of Heaven provided some colorful scenery.
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Our Beijing highlight was most definitely our trip to the Great Wall. We elected to travel three hours outside the city to a less-visited section where we embarked on a 10-km hike.
The Great Wall snakes it's way along the mountain ridges.
Recommended as the best area to view the original wall as it climbs up and down the spectacular mountain ridges that once formed a border between the mighty empires of Mongolia and China.
Great Wall as far as the eye can see!
Proof we climbed the wall...
“Today’s surviving sections, placed end to end, would link New York with Los Angeles, and if the bricks used to build it were made into a single wall 5 meters high and 1 meter thick it would more than encircle the Earth.”
Our 10km walk took nearly 4 hours with almost no other tourists or people in sight.
The wall was very steep at times.
Our sightseeing in Beijing was put on hold for a few days after Nikki was hit with the first bout of ‘tummy troubles’ of our trip which left her in bed with a fever for two days. Eric performed his role of nurse-maid very well, though being stuck in a room for three days with only one English language TV channel which seemed to show the same news in a continuous one-hour loop, he was glad Nikki recovered before he had exhausted our supply of reading books.
With Nikki back on her feet (albeit for only a few hours at a time to begin with), we paid a visit to the Forbidden City. This moated complex is filled with numerous courtyards, halls and palaces which were closed to the public until the turn of the 20th century. The Palace was home to 24 emperors and their entourages.
The murky gray skies didn't keep the crowds from flowing into the Forbbidden City's main square.
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The emperor's adorned the palaces with various sculptures; the crane to symbolize 'long life', and the dragon-lion to protect the Palace gates.
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A huge moat surrounds the Forbidden City.
Our last day of sightseeing took us to the stunning Summer Palace; the summer retreat for the emperor and his court. Strolling around the grounds was very peaceful despite the many tourists, we also enjoyed a ‘speed boat’ ride around the lake (speed boat in shape, not in speed).
The Summer Palace.
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Beautiful bridges provided access to islands on the lake.
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The 'Long Corrior' provided a colorful, artistic promenade along the lake shore.
The Empress' 'Marble Boat' was permanently docked and used as a splendid dining room.
The morning of our departure from Beijing, we queued up alongside hundreds of Chinese to view the preserved body of the late communist leader - Chairman Mao Zedong. Unlike Lenin, Mao is preserved through refridgeration not embalmment - personally we thought Lenin looked far better, but don’t tell the Chinese that!!!! Having passed silently through the solemn memorial hall of one of the worlds most famous Communist leaders under the watchful eye of many soldiers, we then exited by a long row of souvenir stalls manned by loud, aggressive merchants flogging cheap Mao trinkets in every shape and form…… Communism and Capitalism can be found side by side in China!
Eric stands before one of the most famous sights of Tiananmen Square.
Tiananmen Square and Mao's resting place.