Trans-Mongolian Railway to China

The Trans-Mongolian Railway connects Ulaan Baatar to Beijing, China, and is what most people take as part of the Trans-Siberian Train trip. Instead of going straight to Beijing, we decided to stop in Datong first since it was one of places on my list. We book the deluxe class (i.e. we had the compartment to ourselves) which was good given the amount of luggage we have. It was great! In addition to the bunk beds, we had a little seating area and a shower (we didn't try it out). The decor is a little outdated, but clean, and an upgrade after Mongolia. The train conductor took care of us and made sure we had plenty of hot water for tea & stuff.

The 24-hour ride flew by pretty fast. Even the 4 hour border crossing into China was interesting watching them lift up the train cars to change out the wheels (the China and Mongolian train tracks are different widths). Train travel is definitely the way to go if you have the time and the money for the soft sleeper compartments. There's more space to move around, and so much more relaxing....

The main attractions in Datong are the Hanging Monastery and the Yungang Grottoes. For us, there was the added bonus of relaxing in our 4-star hotel (for $50!). To have a real bathroom and be able to take a nice long hot shower without having to worry about not touching anything around you!

The hanging monastery is not really hanging, but built onto the face of a cliff so it looks like it's hanging precariously. It's pretty impressive considering it's over 1500 years old!

The Yungang Grottoes are a series of caves that have Buddhist carvings from around 500AD, constructed under the patronage of the royalty. The best preserved ones have the statues and paintings all over the cave and are quite impressive.

One of them has a large Buddha that is over 17 meters tall. Check out the size of the hands vs the tourists standing in front of it.

It is hard not to run into tour groups in China as we are finding out (more on Chinese tour groups later), but we managed to get into a couple of caves that are not on the typical route. Whereas the popular caves are impressive and give you an idea for what the caves were like in their heyday, the unrestored caves were much more peaceful and solemn.

We were excited to be in China for the food, especially after 10 days of similar mutton dishes. We were told that the 2 specialty dishes in Datong are Dao-Shao-Mien (knife-cut-noodles), and rabbit head (!). We decided to pass on the rabbit heads. The noodles, on the other hand, were really good. The most popular toppings are pork or beef stew, but the noodles themselves have a lot of flavor and good texture. There's also a very popular appetizer/side dish which is cold soybean jelly mixed with lots of chili and hot oil (I know my description doesn't sound appetizing but it was good!). It's so slippery that it really tests ones chopsticks skills. Our driver took us to a place in the town near the Hanging Monastery that apparently makes the best jelly noodles. It doesn't look like much of a place but the food was yummy.

I always thought I'm pretty adventurous in food, but after being in China just a couple of days I realized I am not at all. In this northern town I also saw camel meat, mule meat, and even dog meat on the menu (didn't try any of it)! We would've stayed in this town longer to rest up, but we left because the food (that we can eat) besides the noodles were just so-so. Besides, we still have the rest of China to see.

The train from Datong to Beijing was comfortable, but not as nice as the other train. We shared a compartment with 2 other people – one older man from Beijing and a middle-aged man from Shanghai. It was interesting to hear them contradict each other on almost everything, from where we should visit to current government policies.

Since we've been to Beijing before, we skipped all the typical tourist sights. We did revisit Tiananmen Square and made our way out to the new Olympic Stadium, the Bird's Nest. Apparently all the Beijing tour groups have the same idea because that area was packed with people. Can't imagine what the area was like during the Olympic Games.

The Chinese really went all out with the Olympics, and are still milking it as we still see Olympics related signs and commercials everywhere. This is just the entrance to the subway station at the Olympic Park.

Finally, if you're still interested in seeing more, here's the outdoor market in Datong and a woman trying to load 3 huge bags of potatoes onto her bike. Not sure how she planned on riding it home.

Photos are a bit quirky to upload right now, but I will have more of China soon....