Today's drive took us over the mountain pass north of
Wutai Shan an impressive twisted mountain road. At the top of the
pass at around 2500 metres there was a scenic view point – all
covered in morning fog. So no stop today. Coming down on the other
side of the mountain the fog cleared and we had all morning to enjoy
the beautiful scenery before hitting the highway.
It was only a short
drive of some 120 kilometres to Xuankong Temple – also known as The Hanging
Temple. The temple is over 1400 years old, beautifully situated and built on the side of
a vertical cliff. It seems tiny when you look at it from a distance
but once you climb it you realise that it is real wooden building attached to the side of the mountain. We were warned that it could be a challenge for people who are afraid of heights but everybody made it, though with legs like jelly once in a while. When we went up there there were a lot of people so we had to wait a couple of places before we could climb a latter or leave a balcony which also contributed a bit to the jelly legs for some people. Can't say the people who built the temple made the sides on the balconies very high.
After the temple we drove to our hotel in Datong where we arrived in the early afternoon.
Nice with a short days driving. This gave us more time to explore a
bit of Datong in the afternoon.
The description of Datong in the guide books aren't flattering when it comes to the architecture. We can agree on that. The drive to our hotel included scenic views of block after block of construction sites where the demolition of old concrete structures was taking place.
After having sorted out the hotel we went on a walk to the old town only to discover that "old town" was being replaced by "new old town". Certain sections of the old town were still very much as they used to be including smelly public latrines, other parts were reduced to rubble and yet other parts were being rebuild - to look old.
The best experience of walking through the genuine old town was actually to meet the people living there, saying "hello" to them and getting a hello back with a smile. There is so much more character to a place when there is also people living there no matter how run down the place looks.
Having a guide - Anja - who has travelled this part of the trip before means we now have a person with first hand experiences of the places we're visiting. She knew a place for dinner around the corner so almost all of us went there. Roast leg of lamb. It sounded almost too good to be true but it turned out to be real! Just one block away there was outdoor bbq at the table and after a bit of the usual Chinese organising chaos moving tables, waving arms and discussing we were all sitting at the tables getting ready for the hot coal and the tender meat to arrive. What a meal! Good and tender meat DIY-BBQ'ed at the table, Great Wall red wine :-) and a bit of veggies for side orders. Datong has some pleasant places after all.
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