| The guide books claimed that Datong
still boasted the last steam engine factory in the world, but by the time
I got there in 1990, it was gone. However, it also has the amazing
Yun Gang caves full of Buddha statues, not to mention temples, a nine
dragon wall and proximity to some of the most fantastic sights in the
world.
Heng Shang Bei, sadly covered in
(wooden) scaffolding at the time is still impressive, hanging to the cliff
face in the shadow of a Stalinist dam.
The wooden pagoda at Yingxian, claiming to be the largest
wooden pagoda built by a left footed monk on a Friday afternoon outside
New York. Interesting just for being beautiful so why bother with
their inflated claims to fame?
It was like being back in bible times;
peasants winnowing their grain, with animals wandering over the threshing
floor, crapping everywhere...definitely not the most hygienic place on
earth.
The amazing Great Wall also features here as a
boundary between Shanxi province and Inner Mongolia, although here it is
little more than an endless, meandering earth mound.
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