A little trip report:

Took a trip to Datong and Pingyao for the National Holiday. Arrived back in Beijing yesterday. It's a pretty simple and straightforward route and one I don't suggest doing during any major Chinese holiday. I found myself constantly saying, "Damn. I wonder how much better this place would be without the crowds." I knew what it'd be like before I left but since I can't really just leave Beijing whenever I want I had no other choice but to go when I could get some time off.

Oct. 1st - Flew to Taiyuan - The capitol of Shanxi province thinking it'd be easy enough to grab a bus for the 3-4 hour drive north into Datong. This was on October 1st and it seems like everyone and their brother had the same idea. Grabbed a cab from the airport to the long distance bus station only to find there were no buses. Oppurtunist taxi drivers were offering rides to Datong at exhorbinant prices. I felt a little better when I found out that everyone was getting the same rate. Chinese or foreigner. Me and my girlfriend and two other Chinese people took pretty comfy taxi to Datong at the rate of 200RMB a person! I held out as long as possible. There simply wasn't a cheaper alternative.

Datong - I'd heard stories about Datong claiming it was a terrible place. Grey, polluted, and boring. And that the only good reason to go is for the surrounding sites. Not true. While there isn't much to do, there are a few sights in the city itself worth checking out, and it's not any more polluted than any other Chinese city. I doubt that I'd make a trip there just for the city however. It was cold. On some of the higher hilltops fresh snow could be seen. Beijing was still reasonably warm when I left and I wasn't prepared for the chill in the air. I should've brought a coat.

Made our way to the train station and bought a hard seat tickets to Pingyao for the next night. Walked around and checked out some of the National Day celebrations. The respectable Drum Tower and a really old wooden temple. Checked in at a hotel and crashed for the night.

Oct.2 - Datong still. This day was going to be packed. Started early and hired a taxi for the day. After talking to several drivers we finally found one that was reasonalbe. 260 RMB for the day that included a hell of a lot of driving. We had to pay for toll gates and parking. Again...standard stuff. Went to the 750 year old Wooden Pagoda at Yingxian. Pretty impressive. Not something to spend much more than an hour to oogle at though. Admission - 42RMB

The Hanging Monastery at Heng Shan was next. It's 80km or so outside of Datong. I had high hopes for this place and at first sight it didn't blow me away like I was expecting. An absolute must see if you're in the area, however, and still pretty impressive despite my probably unrealistic expecations. After buying tickets you make your way up to the side of the cliff in which the temple juts out from, it being supported by ingenius architecural engineering, and a few slender timber poles. The tour of the Monastery sees you walking on sometimes precariously narrow wooden planks as you snake your way through teeny tiny passageways while looking at decent buddhas. It was fun and took appx. an hour to complete.

After some lunch we headed back towards Datong with the Yungang Grottoes as our final destination for the day. I also had quite high expectations for the Grottoes which were exceeded by a very large margin. The Grottoes and evident painstaking work that went into the carvings is absolutely "shock and awe" inspiring. Locals we had talked to said we'd need one or two hours to see the caves. We spend close to four looking around and that still wasn't long enough...we had to skip a few of the minor western caves. It was getting dark and we had exceeded our agreed upon time limit with the driver. Admission 60RMB

Back in Datong city we ate dinner and burned a couple of hours before our train was to depart at 8.30pm. Once on the train we upgraded to hard sleepers from the dismal hard seats. There were a lot of empty beds which was surprising and it was also nice not having to deal with the crowds.

We were due to arrive in Pingyao at 4.30am. We'd reserved a room at a guesthouse and had called them to meet us at the train station which they did. First impression of Pingyao...Not a light to be seen. Pitch black. We could vaguely make out the Ming and Qing architecture from the light of the van we were in. It seemed like Pingyao was going to live up to our expecations which again were probably way too high.

Oct. 3 -- Waking up the cold was noticeably less pronounced. Still a tad chilly though. We were staying in a courtyard style guesthouse. It was peaceful and practical. We were anxious to get outside and explore so we ate a quick lunch and headed out. The place was jam packed. As I said previously the trip would have been much more pleasant if the crowds weren't so prevelant. The City Tower rose above all the other buildings which rarely exceeded two stories. Antique stalls were ubiquitous. The most obvious characteristic of Pingyao is the Ming and Qing architecture. Beautiful eaves that hand painted glass lanterns hang from, wood buildings, etc. etc..something that must truly be seen to be appreciated. The thing to do is buy tickets that admit you into the 20 or so historical sights of Pingyao for 120RMB. They can be used for two days if you're not able to squeeze in all of the sights in one day. After walking around some we rented bikes and headed outside the intact city walls for a 6km bike ride to the Shuanlin Temple. The temple is supposedly a historic relic but I wasn't that impressed. Just another temple to me. The Chinese are quite fond of it though as the history isn't lost on them.

Oct.4 - Waking up early we headed to the Pingyao train station. Our destination was the Wang Family Courtyard. A rags to riches merchant who built one hell of a decadent housing complex that once put Emperess Dowager up for a night as she was escaping west. The Wang Family Courtyard lies about a 30 minute train ride south. One stop from Pingyao at Jiu Xiu you take a bus that goes straight to the Wang Family Complex for 6RMB. Taxis are also availible. The Wang Family Courtyard was much bigger than I anticipated and we spend three hours there walking around.

Back to Pingyao we had to get in China's first Bank - Ri Sheng Cheng. Not too interesting aside from the historical importance. We were leaving the next day and we were exhausted. Walked around and did a little shopping. Some of the hot items seemed to be wooden swords and papercuts.

Bussed it back to Taiyuan for our 6p.m. flight back to Beijing.