Day 34 The Hanging Monastery (15 July)

An early start today... to head towards the hanging Monastery - built precariously into the side of Hengshan Mountain. With rickety walk-ways, most of the monastery was balancing on stilts, with some walk-ways only having knee-high barriers to prevent you from plunging to your death!

 

Once again, Stu and I were minor celebrities, being foreigners. A family asked to have their photos taken with us, and I spotted some people taking surruptitious photos of us, but (not succeeding in being subtle because their cameras were pointing right at us and their zoom lenses were working overtime!)

On the way back to the hotel, our car was hit (in a minor sort of way) by a tractor. Our second accident in China! At the hotel, we stumbled across a wedding party. They were very keen to include me in their wedding video while I asked the happy couple if I could take a photograph! We were now ready for our last few hours in Datong which we killed with Lunch and another new experience - Chrysanthemum tea.

Datong itself was not an "impressive" city, but very authentic - until you headed a kilometre or so out of the centre and saw that high-rise blocks stretched for miles and miles along the river! Finally we were ready to board our overnight train to Xi'an. Stu and I had the two top-bunks in the compartment - they were very high up being the top of three and there was not very much head-room and lots of crouching. Still not bad for a £13 travelling hotel, and the sunset views were very nice.