This is not a beautiful city. It's a city of coal mining and heavy industry
and it's not the best place to go to if you have asthma.
But it has hidden treasures like the remnants of an old town that still
has the feel of the China of the 1800s - now fast giving way to shopping arcades - and two big temples with Dragon Walls
and picturesque temple buildings.
The Yungang Caves...
Those are the real reason to come to Datong. Here there are tens of thousands
of statues from finger-sized to a 17 meter high colossus of a Buddha, some in
dark and spooky caves, others exposed to sun and wind.
The caves are some 15 kilometers from Datong and you can get there with public
buses. It's worth to take your time so that you don't have to rush through
since in some of the darker caves your eyes need lots of time to adjust.
The caves are not well known and if you avoid the weekends there's a good
chance that you are almost alone out there...
Some views...
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The Buddha of Cave 20 in Yungang
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The main section of the caves
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Interior of one of the Yungang caves
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Detail of 5-Dragon-Wall in the Shanhua Temple
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