Yungang Grottoes （云冈石窟）

The next day our train left at 2:00 pm so we got up real early and decided to ride a cab out to Yungang Grottoes to save time. We actually arrived before it officially opened (8:00 am) so we walked around the visitor center for about 10 min before we could go in. This place has a massive visitor center and the park area is huge too, not sure what it's all for but we just went to the grottoes part. They were still at least pretty authentic looking despite all the new touristy stuff surrounding them. morning was definitely the time to go, the light shines right onto the cliff side. Again there was hardly anyone there so we had no problem peaking into every cave. We even saw peacocks in one of them! I was pretty thrilled about that. But then we hurried on back to the train station taking the local bus line that ends at the parks gate. Next stop Harbin.

Hanging Monastery (悬空寺)

First stop on our travels was Datong（大同）in northern Shanxi province. The first image is out our hotel window. I had wanted to see Hanging Monastery here for a long time so we set out early in the morning on a bus headed for Hunyuan county（浑源县）. There we were fortunate (or maybe unfortunate because I know I paid too much, but its the off season so options were limited) to be greeted by a driver willing to drive us the rest of the way. Altogether it took about 2, 2 and half hours to get here and probably spent only about 30 minutes climbing through monastery. It's really pretty small but it was still very interesting and especially great that it wasn't crowded or that we had to follow the clearly marked tour path. Mt. Heng（恒山）is really nearby so I renegotiated with the driver and he agreed to take us there and wait while we walked around. Pictures to come tomorrow!