Before viewing, I gave the Hanging Monastery a handicap as I have previously seen glimpses of it on a documentary. After an early morning local bus and taxi trip it just suddenly appears out of nowhere clinging to a cliff about 300 m from the base of a dam. Looking more like a 'perched' monastery and less like a 'hanging' one, I and the handful of people clambered through the precariously built structure. It is rather small and you get the feeling that it was not assembled as one unit but rather thrown together in various dysfunctional sections. Further, it in no way seems structurally sound and I was surprised, even for China, that they let a limitless amount of people scramble around on it. After 25 minutes of exploring and a slew of picture-snapping I lit out in time to pass the arriving tour buses.Not in a hurry to get back to Datong and itching for a hike, I blew off the taxi driver and hiked out of the gorge along the river. Exiting the gorge, a small red flag caught my eye up on the cliff bluff. After a little more eyeing, I spotted what looked like another small monastery. Low and behold I found a trail. With no information, no signs and no people I hiked up to the monastery. From all I can gather, this is the replacement 'hanging monastery' for the one the monks sold-off/gave to the government - I'm not sure. Not as structurally questionable, it still made for a little bit of a surreal experiance. From here I hiked for another 4 hours along narrow, overgrown single tracks along cliff walls along sheer drop offs - very thrilling. I found my way to the top of the mountains and got in a little ridge hiking which offered spectacular 360 degree views of the surrounding valley, towering mountains and terraced mountain sides. The visibility was easily 25-30 miles and the weather spectacular.
Feeling primed for some more exploring, the next dayI headed north to the tiny village of Deshang Bao. Supposedly, here there are crumbling, earthen remains of the Great Wall. The village itself was partially surrounded by its own decrepit earthen wall. I asked a few people where The Great Wall was by pointing to the chinese symbols on a piece of paper and they just motioned off toward the desolate hills. After 2 hours I found it, or rather parts of it. Mostly all that remained was the old parapets every 300 m or so connected by a low ridge of dirt. I could see the parapets stretching off for a couple miles in each direction. I nosed around a few of them but there was not too much to see other than a few curious cow herders. I would love to have posted some pictures of it, as it was a beautiful day, but my camera went for a dunk while I was wading through a river. Like my camera, my return home was also a bit challenged. Apparently, just because a bus will drop you off in a place it does not mean it will pick you up. This goes to explain the concerned looks I got when I originally got off the bus in Deshang Bao. So I started to walk. After an hour and a half of thumbing attempts, the third bus to pass me finally stopped. I had to sit on the floor of the packed bus, but it was so much better than walking in the dark. Oh, and after drying out over night my camera came back to life!
All in all, Datong was a good stop. It offered some off the beaten path adventure that I was not anticipating. I took an overnight train out of town and settled into Beijing before dawn on Friday.Oh yeah, one more thing:
Can you say 'Heels'?
TAR!!!!
TAR!!!!
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