Photos of Datong 大同: Part 1: Beijing Train Station, our hotel & the Hanging Monastery
It was with a little trepidation that we set off for Datong at Friday, 19 June. The train was departing Beijing Station at 11.45pm on a Friday night and was set to arrive at 6.00 am.
Beijing Station
People sleeping outside the train station.
Beijing Train Station is very large.
It is also rather spooky looking and for some reason they decided to make everyone queue up in the dark and in the rather overwhelming and sweltering heat. We waited and were jostled - nearby people were sleeping and we were exposed to various flashes of Beijing Belly.
More people sleeping.
Our Sleeping Quarters
Finally we boarded the train. No easy feat given that we got the platform by walking down stairs in the dark. In our carriage, we had two lower bunks which was what I requested - I have difficulty getting into a top bunk and have bruised and njured myself previously. It was past midight when we got in so there was not a lot of chatter.
Here's the corridor of soft sleeper.
How you clamber up and down from the top bunk.
They expect people to sit on your bunk if you're on the lower bunk - hence the cloths were people might rest their head.
The bunks are separated by a little table.
Guy lying on the top bunk
My view from where I lay in my bunk.
We had our tickets taken away from us and these were replaced with plastic cards. One of the guys was grumpy because he didn't want to be woken up again but she came back to 'register' us i.e. make us write our name and details into a registration book.
She came back a little later and I struggled to fill in the form accurately and the guy in the top bunk above the Canadian mocked me to the other guy and said:"Haha, it says 'country' and she's written 'next'" - because I thought (stupidly) that it was asking me if I was on the top or the bottom bunk.
Sleeping on the train is an interesting experience. The bed itself is ok - comfy enough. The pillow and blanket are also ok as is the rocking of the train. The problem is that there was a gust coming from the window so I had to wake poor the Canadian up in the wee hours to help me close the window. Then I lay there for hours, unable to sleep. I eventually drifted off to sleep at about 4am and then woke up at 5.30am feeling like total and absolute hell :)
My bunk in the morning.
Datong
Once we got to Datong, we hailed a cab (after avoiding all the annoying touts offering to take us sight-seeing) and were taken to the hotel.
We stayed at the Datong Garden Hotel山西大同花园大饭店. They were so polite and helpful over the phone, I couldn't help feeling that they were proud of their city despite the fact that the rest of the world seems to hate it :)
Arriving at the hotel we felt kind of crusty and tired, but the hotel staff were very nice and helpful. After a request from me they swapped our bedding so that it was non-feathers and they also allowed us to have a later check-out time being 1pm on Sunday instead of the usual midday.
We had a rather strange view from our hotel room though
They also let us have breakfast on the day we checked in and everyone was super helpful. As is usual with breakfast in Chinese hotels, it's a clash of cultures :)
View from our floor down to the Chinese restaurant the hotel
It is almost impossible to find an account on the internet that actually likes Datong, but most people will say that they DO like the sights around it. of all, our driver took us to a cave dwelling. We stopped here where we were swarmed by a handful of little old ladies.
Then walked up a small dirt hill and saw a garden
and the entrance of the cave home
The rooms were very spacious
This old man lives there alone. He was very friendly
His bed looks very hard
Hanging Monastery/Xuankongsi/悬空寺
I felt quite anxious about seeing the Hanging Monastery ... reports had been very mixed. Some people said it was a waste of time, some said it was wonderful. We decided we'd see for ourselves.
The Hanging Monastery is at the foot of Mount Hengshan and is 65 km from downtown Datong City. The name is given because it hangs on the west cliff of Jinxia Gorge and is more than 50 meters above the ground.
The Monastery was built in 491 and largely rebuilt and maintained in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). We were definitely not disappointed by what we saw.
For some reason, when Chinese tourists see a rock at a tourist spot that has the name of the tourist spot, they all have to swarm around it and take LOTS of photos.
The Monastery looks absolutely amazing.
Entrance.
Inside.
The roof was beautiful with the yellow and green glaze
Walkways
Rather narrow and precarious walkways
We had a lovely view from the monastery
Funny sign
The stairs were challenging. This shot is blurry but you had to kind of scramble up a ladder through a very narrow opening
In this part, after you got off the stairs, the ground sloped rather sharply and the surface was quite slippery
More narrow stairways
Nerve-wracking when you see things tied together with red cloth :)
Inside the monastery, many of the things are quite faded and old now but still very interesting. Cute little pig for sale
Scary statues whose eyes seem to have disappeared for some reason
This statue's eyes make him look sedated
Interesting patterns
As we left the monastery, I realised that it's not really hanging ... .
Freaky though it seems, the monastery seems to be balancing or propped up by beams
I suppose it works though
Most tourists in the area are of course looking up :)
At first it was the tourist wrapped in yellow who seemed funny - but the guy on the far left looks like he's very worried about going up into the monastery :D
Beijing Station
People sleeping outside the train station.
Beijing Train Station is very large.
It is also rather spooky looking and for some reason they decided to make everyone queue up in the dark and in the rather overwhelming and sweltering heat. We waited and were jostled - nearby people were sleeping and we were exposed to various flashes of Beijing Belly.
More people sleeping.
Our Sleeping Quarters
Finally we boarded the train. No easy feat given that we got the platform by walking down stairs in the dark. In our carriage, we had two lower bunks which was what I requested - I have difficulty getting into a top bunk and have bruised and njured myself previously. It was past midight when we got in so there was not a lot of chatter.
Here's the corridor of soft sleeper.
How you clamber up and down from the top bunk.
They expect people to sit on your bunk if you're on the lower bunk - hence the cloths were people might rest their head.
The bunks are separated by a little table.
Guy lying on the top bunk
My view from where I lay in my bunk.
We had our tickets taken away from us and these were replaced with plastic cards. One of the guys was grumpy because he didn't want to be woken up again but she came back to 'register' us i.e. make us write our name and details into a registration book.
She came back a little later and I struggled to fill in the form accurately and the guy in the top bunk above the Canadian mocked me to the other guy and said:"Haha, it says 'country' and she's written 'next'" - because I thought (stupidly) that it was asking me if I was on the top or the bottom bunk.
Sleeping on the train is an interesting experience. The bed itself is ok - comfy enough. The pillow and blanket are also ok as is the rocking of the train. The problem is that there was a gust coming from the window so I had to wake poor the Canadian up in the wee hours to help me close the window. Then I lay there for hours, unable to sleep. I eventually drifted off to sleep at about 4am and then woke up at 5.30am feeling like total and absolute hell :)
My bunk in the morning.
Datong
Once we got to Datong, we hailed a cab (after avoiding all the annoying touts offering to take us sight-seeing) and were taken to the hotel.
We stayed at the Datong Garden Hotel山西大同花园大饭店. They were so polite and helpful over the phone, I couldn't help feeling that they were proud of their city despite the fact that the rest of the world seems to hate it :)
Arriving at the hotel we felt kind of crusty and tired, but the hotel staff were very nice and helpful. After a request from me they swapped our bedding so that it was non-feathers and they also allowed us to have a later check-out time being 1pm on Sunday instead of the usual midday.
We had a rather strange view from our hotel room though
They also let us have breakfast on the day we checked in and everyone was super helpful. As is usual with breakfast in Chinese hotels, it's a clash of cultures :)
View from our floor down to the Chinese restaurant the hotel
It is almost impossible to find an account on the internet that actually likes Datong, but most people will say that they DO like the sights around it. of all, our driver took us to a cave dwelling. We stopped here where we were swarmed by a handful of little old ladies.
Then walked up a small dirt hill and saw a garden
and the entrance of the cave home
The rooms were very spacious
This old man lives there alone. He was very friendly
His bed looks very hard
Hanging Monastery/Xuankongsi/悬空寺
I felt quite anxious about seeing the Hanging Monastery ... reports had been very mixed. Some people said it was a waste of time, some said it was wonderful. We decided we'd see for ourselves.
The Hanging Monastery is at the foot of Mount Hengshan and is 65 km from downtown Datong City. The name is given because it hangs on the west cliff of Jinxia Gorge and is more than 50 meters above the ground.
The Monastery was built in 491 and largely rebuilt and maintained in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). We were definitely not disappointed by what we saw.
For some reason, when Chinese tourists see a rock at a tourist spot that has the name of the tourist spot, they all have to swarm around it and take LOTS of photos.
The Monastery looks absolutely amazing.
Entrance.
Inside.
The roof was beautiful with the yellow and green glaze
Walkways
Rather narrow and precarious walkways
We had a lovely view from the monastery
Funny sign
The stairs were challenging. This shot is blurry but you had to kind of scramble up a ladder through a very narrow opening
In this part, after you got off the stairs, the ground sloped rather sharply and the surface was quite slippery
More narrow stairways
Nerve-wracking when you see things tied together with red cloth :)
Inside the monastery, many of the things are quite faded and old now but still very interesting. Cute little pig for sale
Scary statues whose eyes seem to have disappeared for some reason
This statue's eyes make him look sedated
Interesting patterns
As we left the monastery, I realised that it's not really hanging ... .
Freaky though it seems, the monastery seems to be balancing or propped up by beams
I suppose it works though
Most tourists in the area are of course looking up :)
At first it was the tourist wrapped in yellow who seemed funny - but the guy on the far left looks like he's very worried about going up into the monastery :D