We arrived in Datong late last night, checked into our hotel and got up early today for our excursion.
We rode about 120 km to a Tao temple, the Xuankong Hanging Temple, carved out of the cliffside. It was built in 481AD, is 1500 years old, twice destroyed by fire with the current version standing for the last 600 years.
It looked a little ‘iffy’ from below but once you got onto it, not so bad. There were interesting statues inside, but like several other temples, “No photos allowed.”
From there we went on to lunch and then to the Yungang Grottoes. Carved over the last 2700 years, (some are as old as 540BC) these were carved fairly continuously except for periods where the current emperor (or other power that be) decided it wasn’t in his best interest to support Buddhism.
Many, many of the Buddha statues have been destroyed or defaced but many survive and some still have colorful paint on the Buddha or the walls.
