From Pingyao to Datong by Bus

The delays of updating this blog are terrible. I am sorry for the wait. I literally have to force myself to sit down and write to catch up with all that has happened. Being in the midst of a Red Sox postseason and midterms is not a good recipe for blog writing. Well, here it goes: I'm going to try to recall our trip to Shanxi Province a few weeks ago. Above is a picture from the incredible Datong Grattoes which I'll get to later in the post. First we took the bus to Pingyao, which is one of the four cities left in all of China that has retained the architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Considering how large China is, I think this is a really sad situation. With China's fast development has come the destruction of a lot of treasured villages, artifacts, and history. In Beijing I see bulldozers and cranes taking out buildings that appear to be hundreds of years old. From talking with a professor who lives here in the international housing, I have acquired a real sense of how much the city has changed in just the past five years. When arriving at the gates of Pingyao's old city, I felt as though I was entering a movie set for "Raise the Red Lantern". We walked toward the hostel we would be staying for several days and all of a sudden, a drum and gong troupe marched past us. Each home along the road was marked clearly in red paint above the entrance. Sudden narrow alleyways would appear on either side of us and continue for what seemed like forever. The sudden quietness in Pingyao was especially prevalent as no cars were allowed inside the town gates. Another quick observation I made, the streets and storefronts were covered in coal. I learned later that Pingyao has one of the deepest reserves of coal in all of China. Ha, it seemed even more polluted than Beijing! Above the traditional roofs in the distance tall smokestacks were always present. The day following a night of exploring the Pingyao streets, we were free to explore all of the museums and other Pingyao sights. The Taoist temple, old government building, and outer town wall were definite highlights of the day. When entering the gates of the Taoist temple, we were greeted by giant 50 foot guards with spears and animal masks. They were pretty intimidating, especially in the position of guarding the entrance. Inside the gate, we came upon huge intense sticks and large statues inside the actually prayer room. It was neat to see Chinese people pray there because the customs were so interesting. After some people prayed, I could tell that the leaders of the temple tried to convert them and ask for donations. Most people refused that we saw for the short time we were there. Later we walked on top of the old wall around the town. The contrast between the old city and "modern Pingyao" was amazing. Outside of the gates, cars raced along the roads and black smoke ascended from the tall smoke stacks. At the old government complex, the highlight was seeing the prison cells and torture equipment. The cells looked really uncomfortable and the torture equipment was brutal. And these facilities were in use until about 10 years ago. That was a disturbing moment when I read a plaque that disclosed that information.

So, later in the day we all met and went off to Taiyuan, which was about a 2 hour drive. Oh, I forgot to mention that the drive from Beijing to Pingyao took about 9 hours. It was a lot of riding in the bus, but I can see how the program wanted us to be able to see as much as possible during our time off from classes. The only problem was that all of China had the same time off because of the national holiday, so it was packed everywhere we went. Haha, every place is usually crowded in China anyway because its China! Anyway, our next stop was a famous temple in Taiyuan called Jinci. Everything in the temple dated back thousands of years. The main temple was built entirely out of wood, which is a very rare sight in China. There were stones that had carved inscriptions of the history of the Tang Dynasty. The temple also had some famous trees that are estimated to be over two thousand years old. It was mind-blowing how old everything was there. After a few hours of exploring the area we were supposed to go to an old military general's residence but the rain washed away the visit. Instead we went straight to Datong to see the Buddist Grottoes. On our bus ride there we drove on roads with giant crater-sized holes. The wild ride consisted of weaving in and out of the potholes, including driving straight onto oncoming traffic. Everyone was slightly fearing for their lives because of the crazy driver's mindless decisions, but we made it safely to Datong. The Grottoes were incredible. Imagine entering caves filled with thousands and thousands of Buddha statues. Imagine witnessing Buddhas hundreds of feet tall. This is what I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see. There were about 20 to 30 caves open to the public, but more that were under restoration. It was saddening to see some of the caves withering away from all of the camera bulb flashes and touching of the artifacts. Hopefully they will find a way to protect the caves and outer statues from being withered away by outside elements. The Datong Grottoes are truly a wonder that you need to see to believe.

In my next entry I'll tackle the Shanghai trip that two friends and I undertook a few weekends ago. The title picture is from that trip, showing The Bund at night in all its glory. I will be regularly changing the title picture so you can see new pictures before I upload them to my Picassa album. It takes forever to do and sometimes doesn't work at all, so have patience with the pictures. Anyway, I just want to let you all know in case you haven't heard...THE BOSTON RED SOX ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!