To the west of Beijing is Hebei province, (it surrounds Beijing), and to the west of that is Shanxi, what felt like the driest place on earth.  Beijing is already dry, but Shanxi (meaning “west of the mountains”) is a dusty, windy, and arid, like footage of a Middle Eastern desert. It is still beautiful, in a rugged kind of way.

Datong, the “small” city of 3 million, is a pretty mediocre place full of construction sites and abandoned, gutted buildings. When you ask Beijingers about it, they say its dirty, and advised against wearing white. Not bad advice actually, as the dirt and dust get swept up by intense gusts of wind that attack you from all sides. The food is also not so good, inferior to what I’ve tasted in Beijing.  They do have this one specialty called 刀削面 which translates to “knife cut noodles” which are pretty good.  Since being back in BJ, I’ve seen SO many 刀削面 places which I of course never noticed before. The other thing about Datong is that things close early, so when you want to play pool at say 9 pm, no one you ask knows of an open pool hall. You also can’t get a haircut after 8 pm, which, believe it or not, is unheard of in Beijing, where haircutting salons are usually open until midnight. I guess I’m just spoiled by the convenience of Beijing with its abundant services, food everywhere, including good western food if you know where to go, entertainment at all hours…

What is cool about Datong though, are the sights outside the city. They have these  awesome Buddha caves from 5th century which we went to see.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.