This hotel had a wonderful range for breakfast, and I was able to have bacon and eggs with chipolatas. The only downside was the disgusting coffee, so I had to have that back in the room.
This is what the Chinese put outside a Hotel when a wedding is being held there.
The smallest real car I have ever seen.
Load 'em up!
These are the brooms used to sweep the streets.
3-wheeled multi-purpose vehicles are everywhere.
There was a drive to the Yungang Grottoes, where there are handmade caves in the side of a cliff with Buddhas inside. The tallest was 17 meters, and the smallest 2cm. The outside walls were once decorated with 1,000s of Buddhas, but many have eroded away. Cave no5 or 6 had the most beautifully decorated Buddha but no photos were allowed. Also, above the cliff face was part of the Great Wall which was made of clay. We were also lucky enough to see some Buddhist monks who were making a pilgrimage and were taking photos of themselves as well. The temple leading up to the cliff face is all fairly newly constructed, but done in traditional ways, and from the air is in the shape of a turtle.
Click to play the Slideshow (1min 41s)
Back in Datong we visited the Huayan Temple, which is the largest and most well preserved temple of the Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties in China.
Lunch was at a restaurant inside the old city walls. We had kung po chicken and pork, potatoes and mushrooms which were both very tasty, but uniquely was delivered by a robot.
It was a short walk past the 5 dragon screen/wall to the Shanhua Monastery. Inside was very quiet and peaceful. The dates from the Tang dynasty (618-907). A lot of these temples are still places of worship and photography is not allowed. Next stop was a Pagoda, and we climbed up very steep steps to the 2nd floor. My legs and feet were protesting too much for me to go up further, but Darryl and Peter went. There were good views of the city from there. Last stop for the day was the Nine Dragon Screen/Wall which had been relocated from the palace across the road.
The palace had previously burned down, but is now being rebuilt as a tourist attraction. In fact, the whole old city wall is being re-built, and all the modern buildings inside are going to be replaced with traditional buildings. After Peter and Yao dropped us off at the Hotel, we went for a walk (despite my protesting legs and feet), to do a little shopping at Walmart. I needed to buy a new cap, and also bought an umbrella and a few groceries. Darryl waited outside and found a stall selling a delicious sounding cold drink called Mango Multi Bacterial drink, so of course he had to have one! Luckily he didn't get sick from it (I also had a tiny sip, but it had too much sugar for me).
The people here are very curious about us, they look twice at Darryl, and we have had teenage girls practising their English on us. Back at the hotel we had a light snack for dinner.
A bad fire somewhere in the city.
Inflatable Chinese Lion (this is the male as it is playing with a ball).
Ancient remnants of the City Wall, built from clay, and now protected by cement bricks.
Another 3-wheeler loaded up.
Statues in the garden of our Hotel, which seemed completely out of place in China.
Our Hotel.
Beautifully carved crab chair in the lobby of our Hotel.
We slept pretty well and started off the day well with a quick Skype call with Shane. First sight was the Temple of Heaven. It was quite hot there, and it is a haven for people go and play music, cards, dominoes, tai chi ball, tai chi, singing, and advertising for prospective son and daughter-in-laws.
Click to play the Slideshow (1min 41s)
Apparently the young people are too busy at work to look for partners, so parents write their child's attributes (some physical and some such as pay level etc) on a piece of paper and lay it on the ground. Other parents go around and look to find someone suitable. It is important for the parents to approve of the partner before they are accepted.
This place was also quite a popular place for wedding photos, with several couples getting them done.
In the days of the Emperorsthey would go to pray for the good harvests, and it sounded very ritualistic. Lunch was at another restaurant and we had a beef dish and kung po shrimp, which was very tasty.
Although to us it seemed quite early, we were then taken to Beijing Train Station. It took ages for the car even to get near the entrance, and we ended up getting out beforehand. Then it really was an eye opener, with thousands of people lined up just to get in the first entrance gate with security at 3 checkpoints. Despite this we had metal cutlery which they didn't even seem to care about in our backpacks. Once the platform was announced, we then went to a huge waiting room, which had another thousand people and had to stand for ¾ of an hour before we got a seat. At about a quarter to 3 we decided to go to the next waiting roomand waited some more. There appeared to be a line forming so we elected to join it, and luckily it 'was' the correct one. We eventually got onto the train. Our ticket was for a soft sleeper, which turns out to be 4 bunks. We had the bottom two (indicated on our tickets), and two young men were in the top.
At first we went through some mountains, with lots of tunnels, and really interesting valleys and rock faces. Although in most places the poorest people live beside the railway lines, the shanties were amazingly dilapidated, and there were piles of building waste and rubbish. There were acres of corn being grown on the farmland after the mountains, also sunflowers, and garden plots close to the shanties. In some placespeople were herding sheep to graze on the grass beside the track. Just when I thought the pollution was starting to abate, we hit a huge industrial city with many chimneysspewing gases. There also seemed to be lots of abandoned factories and industrial buildings. A huge power station had lots of cooling towers, some no longer in use. We took turns sleeping, and while Darryl was asleep we went through a wild storm. After that, it was nice to see a rainbow, and later a sun-dog. For dinnerwe just ate nuts, Chinese dates, and Darryl had a delicious dragonfruit(which was really cheap compared to Australia). The train seemed fairly smooth and comfortable.
We arrived at Datong at around 10pm, just missing a heavy shower of rain. We were met at the station by our guide Peter, and driver Yao, who delivered us safely to Datong Hotel (with a slight mistake by our Tour Company as we were booked into a twin room not double.
An early start today as it was a couple of hours drive to the section of the Great Wall that we wanted to visit (we chose an area further away, so hopefully less busy and commercial). The selection for breakfast was different to yesterday, which was good. We tried lotus.
The hotel dining room
Pastries, toast, tea, no coffee and hot orange juice!
When we went to the lobby, Mr Pan was already there, but Ami was actually a little late. The two hours or so drive was quite pleasant. We stopped about 2 hours in for a toilet break when I got to use my first squat loo. You also usually have to supply your own toilet paper. It was actually no-where near as bad as I had imagined.
We arrived at the base of the wall, where a lot of construction was going on. They are building a replica water village and also repairing a lot of the original buildings.
Click to play the Slideshow
A shuttle bus took us up to where a chair lift started, but we walked up, along with quite a few others. I actually would not have believed last Sunday that I would be walking on the Great Wall of China! I went to half-way between the fifth tower and sixth tower, where one end of the walking track from the cable car came up. Darryl went on further to past the eighth tower. The steps were interesting, at all different widths and heights, so you couldn't get into a stride. The views of the continuing part of the wall were just spectacular. It was just a shame that there was so much pollution as the photos probably won't come out very clearly. The whole walk took us two hours. Back at the base, the shuttle took us back to the village (it was more than punctual, supposed to leave at 12:30, but Ami had warned us to be there at 12:20, and the bus left at 12:17), where we went to a restaurant for lunch. We had a very nice green vegetable, along with chicken and mushrooms, and pork and potatoes. Once again too much food, as Mr Dung did not join us, and Ami only eats a very small amount. I had a nap on the 2 hours return trip to Beijing. Back in the city we went to look at the Olympic stadium and the Water Cube.
It was a very hot long walk, and we could taste the pollution. Coming back to the car was a bit cooler as we went along the artificial Dragon Lake where at least a bit of breeze cooled us. For dinner we went to a restaurant to have Peking Duck, which was very delicious, but again way too much food.
We required a few groceries so headed back to Tesco, to buy them and more water.
I
had set the alarm to get up early, as our guide and driver were
coming at 9:30. The phone had not set the time to China, as I
expected, and so I got up at 5:30am which was actually 3:30am! We got
ourselves sorted, went for a walk, and did a little shopping at Tesco
(I needed a pair of socks and sunscreen until my bag turned up). Back
at the hotel we had breakfast. There was a choice of Muslim dishes,
various vegetables sauteed, hard boiled eggs, and rice porridge,
steamed buns, bread, croissants, rolls, tea, milk, hot water with
lemon, and hot orange juice. I enjoyed the sauteed cabbage with
chilli the most.
The
first destination was The Forbidden City. As it is Summer Holidays
here this was very busy. Here the artwork was quite spectacular, and
the history very interesting. We did a fair bit of walking, and it
was pretty hot and humid, I did not have a hat.
Click to play the Slideshow
Next we were taken on
a rickshaw ride around some of the old city. I felt as though we were
taking our lives in our hands, but Ami had told the driver to be very
careful with us.
Click to play the Slideshow
Ami then took us to lunch to a famous dumpling
restaurant, which looked very nice, but it wasn't the best place for
me. I had pork ribs and Chinese beer, which was fizzy. Darryl had
dumplings, and sweet and sour pork which he enjoyed.
The silk factory
was the next destination, and we were under quite a bit of pressure
to buy something, anything, but although it was all very nice, I
wasn't interested. What was interesting was to see how they used
double-cocoons to stretch out to make layers for quilts. It took 80
layers for one, and they had to be stretched by hand.
During the day,
Ami phoned the airport and found that my case had arrived in Beijing,
which was a relief.
Our last destination, for the day, was the Summer Palace. Once
again this was very crowded, but it was easy to see why it was the
location for the Summer, as it was a lot cooler. Again the
artwork was really beautiful, especially along the long corridor.
There were lots of boats out on the artificial lake.
Click to play the Slideshow
We were offered
to go to a show, but were pretty tired still from the trip, so opted
to just go to the hotel room. We were still full from lunch (there
was sooo much food), so just had showers and went to bed. I must say
that the drivers here are crazy, they don't signal changing lanes,
and there are bikes and pedestrians everywhere, but we only saw a
couple of accidents, so it must work in some way. It seems to take
hours to get anywhere, and the motor scooters and cyclist seems to be
allowed to go through the red lights at will. The smog was pretty
bad, with the white haze visible only a short distance away, and the
city not really visible.
While packing, I did my back...it was so sore at one stage I could only
crawl around. I used heat packs, rested, and Darryl did a bit of an
adjustment. Very worried about how bad it is so close to leaving.
Tuesday
4 Aug:
An
early start we were out and waiting for the taxi. Luckily there was
no fog like yesterday, so no delays. The flight to Brisbane was a
little bumpy on ascent and descent.
We took the complimentary T-Bus
to the International Terminal. The flight to Hong Kong was around 8
hours, and was quite good. We had and aisle and a window seat
together which suited us both. In Hong Kong we were a bit worried
about the time to get to our terminal, but the flight was delayed
quite a bit, so it turned out to be ok, except that I was dying to go
to the loo, but kept holding off thinking we would board soon. Hong
Kong looked quite spectacular both on the way in and out.
It was only
a couple of hours to Beijing. We went to collect out bags, but mine
did not turn up. I made a lost property report and we finally went
out to find our patient guide, Ami Pan, and driver, Mr Dung waiting.
It was after midnight when they got us settled into our hotel, City
Inn. The room was quite nice. The tiniest toilet rolls I have ever
seen (I use that much in one session). No coffee supplied, but I had
drunk plenty on the flights. The bed was really hard. I did not feel
so good, my glands were up, and I had a headache. I set up my travel
sim, and we went to bed. My back is improving.
The palace had previously burned down, but is now being rebuilt as a tourist attraction. In fact, the whole old city wall is being re-built, and all the modern buildings inside are going to be replaced with traditional buildings. After Peter and Yao dropped us off at the Hotel, we went for a walk (despite my protesting legs and feet), to do a little shopping at Walmart. I needed to buy a new cap, and also bought an umbrella and a few groceries. Darryl waited outside and found a stall selling a delicious sounding cold drink called Mango Multi Bacterial drink, so of course he had to have one! Luckily he didn't get sick from it (I also had a tiny sip, but it had too much sugar for me). 
