Datong - Yungang Caves & Hanging Temples

Marco Polo (..yet another lying Eye-talian) Datong as a 'grandiose and beautiful city' - well a lot has changed in 700 years my friend. The Datong that greated us is like something from Dickens 'Hard Times'. A sprawling ugly city almost entirely dependant on the local coal industry (Datong supplies 1/3 of China's coal each year). There are open holes all over the place (Gary Lyons - you wouldn't last an afternoon here fella!) & a thick layer of smog wherever you go. Maybe I'm just bitter because there was nowhere, in a city of 4 million people, to watch the Champions League Final. In short, it's a bit grim.

Two fine sites about 2 hours outside of Datong did make the stop off worthwhile though..

The Yungang Caves are carved in sandstone from about AD 460. caves consist of over 53 grottoes and 50,000 statues that include Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and flying Apsara. They were carved by 40,000 workmen over a hundred-year period. Up close the Buddhas are very impressive at nearly 45 feet tall - it's hard to get your head around how they were constructed over 1500 years ago without the benefit of any of our modern technical advances (such as over-sized builders crack jeans & little plastic lunchboxes for a bit of a mid-afternoon munch)

The Hanging Temples (aka the wonder of the Hengshan Mountai) are Buddhist monasteries built in the west cliff of Jinxia Gorge more than 50 meters above the ground. Built in 491 AD again its amazing to think how these were constructed by hand by Buddhist monks literally absailing off the side of a gorge. Impressive stuff. The lads who c0cked up wembley could learn a lot from these fellas.

On the whole, continual staring aside, the Chinese that we've come across have been really friendly. There's a fair bit of banter to be had. Whenever we respond to their "Harrow" with "Hello" they absolutely crease themselves laughing - I'm beginning to think the two of us could have a lucrative side-market in stand-up comedy if the funds run low...they've even brought out a soap in our honour (...nudge nudge, have a wash lads)...we'll excuse the minor spelling mistake!

Datong - Search in vain for the CL final..

Datong is a city with 4 million inhabitants & after an exhausting search of local hotels & bars we have discovered there is officially nowhere to watch the Champions League Final in this hell-hole. We are scarpering in 2 hours on an overnight train to Taiyuan in search of ESPN-Asia, which is showing the game. I will be semi-suicidal if I miss this game. No joke. Keep all sharp objects away from my grasp.

Here's a picture of us in far better humour. Istanbul 2005 - lets hope for a repeat performance!

UPDATE (26/05/07) - After an exhaustive search of Taiyuan we finally found a 4-star hotel which had the game. We blew a week's accomodation budget on a room (40 inch plasma TV) to watch the biggest Italian smash and grab job since the march of the Roman Empire. I guess after Istanbul karma was just waiting to catch up with us. I still think that Inzhaghi is rivalling Gary Neville & Peter Kenyon for the title of the most odious man in world football.

Beijing - 2008 Olympic Stadium (aka "The Bird's Nest")

On Sunday we got on the subway to North West Beijing to see if we could catch a glimpse of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium (aka "The Bird's Nest") currently under construction.

Although a large area around the stadium meant it was effectively a sealed-off construction site we did manage to get close enough to get a few pictures. It's a pretty novel design and it really does stand out in the North Beijing skyline alongside the "Bubble Building" where the swimming events will take place.

Official Stadium Spiel - "Perhaps the most unique feature of the structure is its "cushion" system which strategically fills the spaces within the building's facade to regulate wind, weather, and sunlight. On the rooftop, the inflatable cushions fill gaps to weather- and waterproof the stadium. "Just as birds stuff the spaces between the woven twigs of their nests with a soft filler, the spaces in the structure of the stadium will be filled with inflated cushions."

The building is a collaboration between Herzog & de Meuron and China Architecture Design Institute. Construction began in December 2003 and capacity upon completion is expected to be 100,000.

"Everyone is encouraged to do their most stupid and extravagant designs there. They don't have as much of a barrier between good taste and bad taste, between the minimal and expressive. The Beijing stadium tells me that nothing will shock them." — Jacques Herzog

View from a nearby footbridge

If you can make sense of this sign outside the stadium then you're a better man than me!

Beijing - First Few Days

First post on ye ole blog eh, if this isn't any good I know you'll all delete this link..and I wouldn't blame you. I'll keep it short because it's nearly 6am & I am pretty drunk on the local brew - Tsingtao.

Jet lag hit us fairly hard so we were all over the place for the first few days or so but managed to get a few sights in.

We had a bit of a stroll around Tiananmen Square on Wednesday and managed to make it out for a trek of the Great Wall of China at Juyongguan on Thursday. It was built in the 5th century by the Ming dynasty and is one of the most strategically important sections of the Great Wall due to its position as a link to Beijing, but I didn't need to tell you that right...?

Below - The view from the base of the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall

After we conquered the wall (the pic above is of me at the top...shattered) we got a cab back in to town and did a tour of some inner city hutongs (narrow alleyways, built after Genghis Khan reduced Beijing to rubble, which are being swiftly demolished as Beijing attempts to became a truly modern city for the 2008 Olympics), the Beijing Bell & Drum Towers (built in 13th century to inform the locals of the coming of both morning & evening) before we ended up in a Porcelain factory for a look around and a bit of a mess about on the potters' wheel.

Generally it's been a good laugh so far. The lack of signs/people with any shred of decent English is a bit worrying at times but the sign language has been put to good use. The locals are pretty sound - always either coming up & supplying us with unsolicited "harrows", asking us to stand in for photos with them or just plain staring us out because they've seen less westerners than I've seen salads.

Zài jiàn,

Phil