From Datong to Hohhot...

Hello from Datong - the third most polluted city in the world!!!

Martin and I have enjoyed our time here, despite the non-changing gray skies and constant need to cough!! We're leaving this evening on a train bound for Hohhot in Inner Mongolia... from there we're hoping to take tours into the grasslands and drink yak milk while riding horses with our hair flowing behind us like in the days of old!!

Datong has been fun... we've done most of the touristy things there are to do here, and done it nice and slowly too. (I've been a little sick so it's nice not to have to run around getting everything done in one day!).

The day we arrived after our night train from Beijing, we pretty much did nothing. Wonderful. We slept, found the internet cafe, chatted to the foreigners in our room (an Italian girl and a French guy), and ate delicious knife-cut noodle from a smiley-faced man in a dirty little shop on the side of the road. The method they used to create this culinary delight was really fascinating... the chef moulds a huge piece of dough into a long poo shape (sorry no other way to describe it!) and then uses a huge grater thing to slice pieces off... the pieces fly through the air into a huge bowl of boiling water. After they're cooked, he puts some into a bowl, adds a meaty sauce and a boiled egg - and its ready!! Yum yum.

On Thursday we got on a local bus, off to do some sightseeing (the only reason foreigners come to this smoggy city). Located at the southern foot of Wuzhou Mountain about 16 km west of Datong, are the beautiful Yungang Grottoes. They were built against the mountain and extend about 1 km from east to west. The construction of the caves began in 453 and took 40,000 people 50 years to complete. The 53 grottoes in Yungang Grottos include about 1,000 niches with more than 51,000 statues – a treasure-trove of cave art that combines traditional Chinese art forms with foreign influence, particularly Greek and Indian. The tallest sculpture here is a 17-meter high Buddha, and Martin and I had a hilarious time trying to get a picture of it with us in the foreground :)

The big Buddha looking all tall!


Yesterday we were up for some more exciting sightseeing, but decided to stick to what the city itself had to offer, rather than take a bus for over an hour out of the city. After walking down a rather deserted and skanky looking road, in what we thought was the direction of the city centre, it started to rain. We were hungry (we'd missed the free breakfast provided by the hotel because we didn't wake up in time!), tired of walking and frustrated at not seeing anything that resembled a bustling city centre. We waited out the rain under the overhang of an old half-torn-down building and ate dry bread with some spam sausages (oooh mouth-watering!).
After the rain stopped, we set out again... and horray, we found a street that looked more like what we wanted. Managed to get on a bus into town and thought our troubles were over!

The only problem was I was getting tired and grumpy. Still not over my fluey sickness, I just felt drugged and could hardly put one foot in front of the other! I needed food... the only problem was it was that silly time between lunch and early dinner when nothing is open. The stalls on the sides of the road close, the restaurants shut their doors and us poor foreigners go hungry!! Martin decided he needed to look after his woman... and summoned up some ladies on the street to help us find some food! (seriously, usually he just calls out to any old person and they rush to his aid... very handy). Soon we were surrounded by 3 eager ladies all wanting to try out their English skills. We ended up spending the day with a lovely 20 year old called Shan-Shan. She said it was her first opportunity to speak to English people so she was excited to practice her English.

She was so sweet, walked around the city centre with us all day - showing us the sights. We saw various temples, a drum tower and the Nine-dragon Wall. I found the wall the most interesting... it was built in 1392 to conceal the palace of a Ming dynasty (1368-1644) prince. The walls were built all over the country during Imperial China to hide various palaces and temples from the common people. The one we saw is the biggest and best preserved wall left in China.

The nine-dragon wall:


Today we finally got up in time to make the free breakfast... and it actually wasn't that bad. We had steamed buns, boiled eggs and a fried dough thing that reminded me a lof of koeksisters back in South Africa! Yum. Martin did a good job of pilfering some extra eggs for our lunch and we left the 5th floor full and ready for the day.
Not that we've done much... packed up our stuff and walked all of 5 minutes down to this internet cafe! Taxing. Later we'll pop to the supermarket (we're going to find an electrical mosquito repellant thing... no malaria for us!!).

That's all for now... Inner Mongolia here we come :)