Hanging Temple and 1500yr old Buddhist grottoes!

This is a small village we saw on the way to Datong out the train window. This is the "other side" of China that is still awaiting the boom to change their lives.
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Datong the city has little to offer but nearby are the very unusual 'hanging' monastery and the Yungang caves.

The Hanging Temple is quite unique architecturally and is over 1400 years old! It is built into the side of a mountain. For support cross-beams were built into the side of the mountain while the back of the mountain provides additional support. There were two principal reasons for building a temple in such an odd location; the mountain provided relief from rain, snow and other natural hazards. The other reason is the Taoist principle of no noise. At that height and isolation they needn't worry about that! In the temple itself there are relics that reference to the three main religions of China: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, which is also a unique attribute of this monastery.

The Hanging Monastary on the cliffs.
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Our next stop in the tour were the Yungang grottoes. That for us turned out to be the highlight of the tour and much more fascinating than the hanging temple. Building commenced in 453 and took like 50 years and 40,000 people to complete! There are 53 grottoes in total containing over 50,000 Buddhas. Now talk about faith! The Buddhas come in different sizes and the tallest is like 50 feet while the smalles is only about 2cm. It is hard to imagine how they were built as in the beginning there was only solid sandstone and so carving was done from top to bottom ending with a statue and a cave. The walls of the grottoes are also covered in intricate details, all carved as well. One could spend hours examining the detail of any particular niche but one would probably have to be either a great Buddhist or have great appreciation of architecure and design.

A better view of the structure. Supposedly it would be fine without the struts sticking down. The main beams go deep into the cliff face.
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Visit to these sights can also be a day-trip from Beijing if you are willing to sleep on the train to and from as other than that there is little else to see in Datong.