Datong Part II: The Amazing Yungang Grottoes

August 4, 2012 continued…..

As  you'll remember we had just left the hanging monastery for another location. The hanging monastery was about a one-hour drive from the hotel with our taxi.  We have absolutely no idea how long it'll take to get to our next destination.

 Enjoy the scenery…

I'm curious what these caves are all about:

watermelons, watermelons, watermelons:

We saw lots of road side stands with watermelons for sale.  I asked Mark to take photos of them while we were driving in the taxi.  So…the taxi driver stopped and bought a watermelon for us to share.  :-)

helping our taxi driver (in the white shirt) choose a good watermelon:

yep! I think that's a good one!

See that donkey in the distance?  He helped us…

our taxi driver cutting up a watermelon for us to eat and enjoy.

Yummy watermelon slices!!!  When we finished a piece we threw our rinds to the donkey standing at the edge of the field.

Our companions for our watermelon eating excursion. See that elderly gentleman sitting on the ground with that bowl of food in his lap? He kindly offered me a bite of his lunch. I must say- it was really good!

 Views as we are driving in the taxi to our next destination:

Hello Cow!

Stacked brush piles. Wonder what they're for? I'm guessing for burning in a stove to heat the house? Or cook food?

It seems that we've arrived at our next destination.

And where exactly are we???   

 It's a place called Yungang Grottoes. 

This entrance to the grottoes reminds us, oddly enough, of Mt. Rushmore. Weird, I know.

That's me trying to decipher the map we bought for 5 RMB.  I love being able to ask in Chinese if they have maps available! 

Check out these caves, or actually grottoes:

What's inside the cave????

Buddhist cave art.

Let's check out the next set of caves:

This cave is clearly bigger than the rest of the grottoes here.  This is the biggest one in Yungang Grottoes.  In my guide book it states that 3,000 monks where able to live in here.  WOW!!! :

Entrance to the cave.

Oh W-O-W!!! Check out the size of that Buddha to the right of the girls….he's HUUUUUGE!!!

Quite the cave….

As you can tell, there are lots and lots of caves to explore:

 The wooden structure fronting two of the caves is an interesting twist.  I wonder why only these two have the wooden structure.

More caves….the guide book states that there are over 51,000 Buddha statues!!!!!

Can you imagine what it must have taken to carve these cave walls????

Caves 9-12 (could have the numbers wrong) were closed for viewing due to renovations. I can only imagine that erosion has played a role in damaging the structure of these grottoes and the carvings inside (and outside) them.

and more caves! I think my guide book stated that there are 39 caves or grottoes for viewing but I think there might be more than that.  

The Tourist Halts.  Indeed.  I wouldn't dare walk past a sign like that…would you???

Hmmm…that looks suspiciously like an ice cream vendor…let's go look.

Yes!  It IS an ice cream vendor.  We'll take four of the things that look like actual ice cream instead of frozen green peas on a stick.

It's so bright and sunny …. and we forgot our hats (Ok we didn't ALL forget our hats, but everyone who doesn't think they are Indiana Jones forgot their hats)!!!  Let's buy a parasol- or a sun umbrella.

 An interesting symbol:

Check out the little symbols on the side of the ribbons.

And then of course the stalls and stalls and stalls as you try to exit the compound….

We assumed this was some sort of taffy…looked like quite a workout!

And here are some people pounding some nut-candy-like thing with wooden mallets…

Time to head back to the hotel. I'm ready for a nap!!!

The taxi driver pulled over so that we could take photos of these dragons. I have absolutely no idea what their significance is.  But here is the requisite photo.  Please enjoy.

Back in the hotel!!!

Yep! That's EXACTLY how I feel, Annika. TIRED!!!!

Let's take a break- maybe take a nap or watch a movie or take a shower.  Maybe afterwards let's go find dinner!

Join us next time for Datong Trip Part III: The REST of the trip!!!