Splendor Amidst the Rubble

After 5 awesome days in Beijing to start off our Chinese adventure, it was time to move on. We decided to take an overnight train to the city of Datong (9 hours southwest) in the Shanxi Province and see a different side of China. Despite its history (Founded in 200BC) Datong isn’t a tourist destination by any means. It’s known as one of China’s most polluted cities and therefore has been identified as one of the key cities requiring redevelopment. Coal mining is the dominant industry & there was dust blanketing the city when we arrived to the train station at 7AM. Quite a contrast to the bustling, modern landscape of Beijing.
 

Datong

Building an "ancient" wall.

We left our bags at the station and wandered around town. No foreigners anywhere! Ah it was strange to be stared constantly by the locals. At first, I thought we weren’t welcome, but then I realized they were simply curious and fascinated to see westerners walking around their city and eating in their restaurants (A struggle in itself). It was a unique experience to say the least. The massive 14th Century Ming dynasty wall was being rebuilt and we figured there must be some cool things to see within the ancient city. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of anything. Just rubble, construction work and dilapidated buildings amongst the trash. It reminded me of post-WWII Poland. A sad sight indeed. The wall is an impressive structure and when it’s finished and the town is rebuilt, I’m sure it will be beautiful.  For us though, Datong will always be a symbol of the rapid development of the country.

Disappointment

The main reason we came to Datong was to check out the Yungang Grottoes. Located just outside of Datong & built in the 5th and 6th centuries, these mountain-side caves are filled with 51,000 Buddhist statues! 53 caves in all & the place was remarkable to see first-hand. We met a nice Chinese student who walked around the grounds with us. First, we went through a beautiful temple to get to the start of the caves and I just wasn’t prepared for the grand scale of the place. Buddha statues carved into the stone mountainside of all shapes and sizes gazed out at us. The detail and restoration was incredible. I got a real sense of the massive amount of effort and devotion it must have taken from the builders. After over 1000 years, some of them still looked like new!

Cave of 1,000 Buddhas

Buddha Cave

A great treasure of the past, the grottoes were definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Despite the dirtiness and development of Datong, the thousands of ancient, carved stone structures made the trip well worth it!

Damn, that's a biiig Buddha!

Buddha Cave