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It's perhaps their surroundings of the dust shrouded mine region of Shanxi province tarnishs these two places' fame. They are less known to foreigners despite the impressive possession of the unique historical facades and ancient Buddhism carvings that many travelers are seeking. Honestly speaking, when my colleagues offered Datong and Pingyao to me for a three day short break to central China, I was hesitated to take the offer. However, Datong and Pingyao,proved their worth during muy trip.?

I boarded a train from Beijing for Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province. I booked myself hard sleepers and I found it was acceptable. They have 6 bunks and a small table with a thermos in our compartment and each bunk has a thin sheet, mattress, and pillow. But the compartment with no doors, so there is no privacy.

The train trip, however, turned out to be a really unpleasant one. It was far from relaxing. You do not expect to get any sleep. The horn goes off at irregular intervals and unsociable hours, People walked through the aisle all the time I had no idea whether the other compartment was as bad as here.

The train pulled into Datong Railway station at 5:10 pm. when the train arrived all the tourists were met by prearranged vehicles through the local travel agencies who arranged tours to the various sights around. After getting off, I looped around the city for a hotel. It was peak tourism time here and hotels were heavily booked. I tried several ones but were always told " no room available". Panic, disappointed and tired but thankfully, a taxi driver understood my plight and took me to the Huawai Hotel which had availability. The Huawei tuned out to be a very comfortable and clean hotel with cheap and nice room. Good result. One point should be noted though. No English is available.

I started our next day very early in the morning. Had a hasty breakfast at the hotel and then jumped straightly into a taxi and head for the bus station. It all seemed too easy as they sold us two tickets and put us on the bus. Three quarters of an hour later we were still on the bus and it hadn't moved! After the last seat was filled, you thought it should be moving now. But no, the driver filled the narrow aisle with several stools and the people still yelled out there. The bus was terribly overloaded when it started its way. Luckily I befriended all of the other passengers on the bus; they were all very interested in me and where I am from. Although we could only communicate via my phrase book and sign language, they were very nice and even shared some of their food with me.
The Hanging Monastery was another story. It is amazing. It is precariously built into a near vertical rock face, the whole structure supported by nothing more than a few wooden beams. I had 40 minutes walking around. The air was misty, which made the experience more mystical. The view was great and the old monastery looked very old. They could not build the monastery on the flat land because of flooding from the river (that is now gone because of a dam). The most interesting thing about it is that it belongs to all the three major religions in China: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

I peered around inside seeing how the structure goes right up to the cliff face. Several temples had old wooden Buddhas and deities inside, but fairly small rooms.

I got back to the hotel in the afternoon and went for another walk to try finding something interesting to do. But except ubiquitous clothing markets and overcrowded streets all I found was a park where the city's population hang out. While I was busy admiring Datong, the people in Datong were busily admiring me. Before long I found myself the centre of the park's attention. Some people would just stare and point, others would ask to have their photos taken with me. When I granted one for a photo, there would be a line waiting there. Still 2 young girls wanted to practice their English with me.

The train trip from Taiyuan to Pingyao was enjoyable.

The next morning I was awoken from a lovely sleep by the call of a rooster. Mornings here in Pingyao were interestingly early, before the tourists and the touts flourished, locals made their way around, Smoky fires blossomed, children played on their way to schools.

Pingyao was a very nice place to relax and explore. I was met by tight cobbled streets, the overhanging roofs of the Ming buildings, courtyards and lanterns, all within the intact original city wall. All the houses were made of grey bricks with very intricately carved roof supports. Doors and windows are all made of pattern panels of wooden lattice. Years ago these panels were lined with calligraphy pictures on rice paper or plain white paper covered in red papercuts. Now of course all the hotels have them covered in white glass, though they are still set with papercuts. It was amazing that these brick architectures had survived wars, uprisings for hundreds of years.

The town was circled by a wall, which is 6km in length and is made from rammed earth covered with bricks. Every 50 meter there set a watch tower. We had a great time walking around the wall, watching the locals with their daily life. There are four entrance through the city wall to the town, all of which set with wooden towers, intricately carved and covered with exquisite paintings.

Without having one specific main tourist attraction, for us, Pingyao achieved something that none of the other tourist sites had been able to and it gave us a true reflection of life in old Imperial China.

We spend two days exploring the maze of alleys, visiting antique shops (and making our first souvenir purchase) eating, drinking and making lots of friends.