DAYS 102-104 (1-3 July 2025) CHINA: Hunyuan (Hanging Temple), Datong (Yungang Grottoes), Badaling (The Great Wall of China for the 3rd & Final Time).

This is the last post before our last Madventure truck destination of Beijing. I cannot believe we are nearly at the end of this enormous drive.

We left our hotel in Pingyao in small shuttles to get to the truck parked outside the West Gate. By 8am we were on our way to the Hanging Temple near the city of Datong some 383km and 8hrs drive away. The immediate scenery was very green, lots of farms and many factories with cities built around them. I simply cannot get over the degree of industrialisation in this country. There are smoking factory chimneys and high-rise apartments everywhere, even in mountain valleys and gorges. This country is on industrial steroids and you can SEE it !!! The truck pulled into the car park of the Hanging Temple at around 4pm. Another shuttle took us 6km to a very impressive mountain pass. There it was. The equivalent of Mega Spileo (a Greek Monastery) clinging to a vertical cliff face. Amazing.

The Hanging Temple (also Hengshan Hanging Temple or Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple) is a monastery complex built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) near Mount Heng outside the town of Hunyuan, 64km from Datong City in Shanxi Province, China. Built in 491AD, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because as a Buddhist temple it also supports Taoism and Confucianism. The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiselled into the cliffs. The main supportive structure is hidden inside the bedrock. The monastery is located in the small canyon basin, and the body of the building hangs from the middle of the cliff under the prominent summit, protecting the temple from rain erosion and sunlight.

As usual, the place was pouring with people, especially school children. A long queue took us from one end to the other and from bottom to top to bottom again. Took an hour. The walkways very close to the edge and everything made of wood. The edifice sits on wooden cantilevers that have been drilled into the mountain. One third sticks out and two thirds is buried in the mountain. That’s good because I would not like a collapse !!! I will let the photos do the “wow wees” of this place. Terrific. We shuttled back and trucked to a magnificent hotel overlooking the mountain of the monastery just 6km away. Time for wine. Time for James Bond. Time for a delicious dinner in the hotel restaurant. In fact, the spicey shredded beans with onions, mushrooms and chilli was the best vego dish I had to date on the entire trip. Absolutely delicious but boy did it play havoc on my run the next morning…

My guts wanted to rule my run. I made sure the chilli beans were left behind but there were some hidden ones at the 3km mark. I pushed through focused on the vast filed of corn as I ran out of town. A nice 20C, wide road and no traffic. I was glad to back at the hotel to farewell the last of the beans. The Yungang Grottoes are only 94km away, arriving 1030am to even more local crowds. The Yungang Grottoes (formerly the Wuzhoushan Grottoes) are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes built from 465AD during the Northern Wei dynasty near the city of Datong. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China. The others are Longmen and Mogao. The site is located about 16 km west of the city of Datong, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries AD. There are 53 major caves, along with 51,000 niches housing the same number of Buddha statues. Additionally, there are around 1,100 minor caves. The grottoes were excavated in the south face of a sandstone cliff about 800m long and 10m high. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I visited a number of caves and the Buddhas inside were stunning. So much detail. So much colour. There were also 3 giant Buddhas carved into the rock outside. This place is well worth a visit, even with the crushing crowds. Here is the proof before I show you Datong Walled City…

So glad that our hotel in Datong was only 30min away. It rained at the grottoes and I was keen to get into some dry clothes before visiting the Datong Walled City. Yes – another wall – this one is the smallest at only 4km square and cannot be walked around since parts of it have collapsed. We checked into our hotel at 3pm and I wasted no time organising a taxi to take me and Anne (from Germany) into the walled city some 5km away. The rest of the group planned to go at 5pm but the sky was bad and temperature was slowly dropping – a runner’s sure sign of rain coming. The Datong outside the wall is huge and spread out. High-rise apartments everywhere but older style. Big broad avenues with lots of smaller style mum and dad shops.

Datong (Pop 1,914,000. Elev 1,042m) was originally a small settlement established by the Han Dynasty (biggest dynasty and the one most modern-day Chinese are descended from) around 200BC. Datong’s survival was assured by the construction of the nearby grottoes over 50 years from 460BC. In 1048 it was named Datong and became the capital of China for a short while. It was sacked twice and rebuilt in 1652, which explains why most of the older buildings look new. Datong wall is one of them and in good shape. The inside of Datong walled city is very inconsistent. Parts of it have the older architecture with pedestrian walkways but most of it is just car parks and newer shopping malls. It is like a mix of Xi’an and Pingyao. We walked for a total of 3hrs visiting the following attractions: South Wall, Shanhua Monastery, Confucious Temple, Academic God Temple, Catholic Cathedral, Dai Wangfu (Royal Palace), Si Pai Lou Monument, Drum Tower, Chunyang Taoist Temple, Datong Mosque. The highlight was the Taoist Temple which is actually a complex of several individual shrines adorned with large sculptures surrounded by coloured murals, pottery and food offerings. I think this was the only Tao Shrines that I visited whilst in China and they are definitely more colourful and ornate than the Buddhist counterparts. At around 6pm we looked for food around the Drum Tower and as predicted it started to sprinkle. I picked up six giant BBQ chicken drumsticks and the usual cooked cabbage and Bok chow. The shop that sold the BBQ drumsticks was the only one with a huge queue in front of it. By sheer chance, the group walked past while I was in the queue. Anne and I caught a taxi back and by the time we settled into our rooms it was pouring outside – well timed. I helped Anne cull some of her photos and settled down to what turned out to be the tastiest chicken drumsticks I have ever had !!!

I forgot to take a photo of the drumsticks but did not forget the images of Datong Walled City…

MY FAVOURITE VEGGIE DISH ON THE ENTIRE TRIP ON THE RIGHT...

MY 2ND FAVOURITE DISH ON THE ENTIRE TRIP...

Today was the day we saw the most popular section of The Great Wall of China near the town of Badaling, which is a 284km, 5hr drive from Datong. We left Datong at 8am under heavy cloud and cruised through heavily farmed flat land with coal-fired power plants every so often – now I know why we export so much coal to China !!! The cloud stayed with us as did the altitude at a constant 1000m above sea level. We arrived at the wall around 1pm and actually drove through it to our hotel settled in a valley with the wall directly ahead on both sides. I noticed mist rolling in with some light sprinkles as we unloaded the truck for the last time. We would catch taxis into Beijing tomorrow since the hostel is central and the truck is not allowed there. The truck would stay here next to the wall and the next travellers would catch taxis here and start the Southern Silk Route over 6mths to Amman Jordan – the trip I will do next year !!! It was both happy and sad bidding goodbye to the truck called Mariana that had been our home away from home for the last 102 days and a massive 17,788km from Istanbul to this very place !!! Goodbye but not farewell Marianna since I will see you next year !!! After checking in, I lined up our guide Shannon to take me, William, Olivia and Anne to the wall ASAP to beat the weather and we did.

Badaling is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Beijing's city centre. The portion of the wall running through this site was built in 1504 during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military outpost reflecting the location's strategic importance. The highest point of Badaling is Beibalou, approximately 1,015 meters (3,330 ft) above sea level. The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone restoration, and in 1957, it was the first section of the wall to open to tourism. The section that we climbed is actually 2.5km from the tourist trap that attracts millions each year and there were NO PEOPLE when we climbed – this more than made up for the cloudy, misty weather. We climbed 884 steps from an elevation of 500m to 721m over a total distance of 510m one way up. The reverse for going down. The terrific views along the way somewhat obscured by the mist but still worth the climb. Parts of the wall were extremely steep sporting steps almost half a metre high !!! By some miracle, a metal platform presented itself with grand views of the wall – just perfect for my final interview with Shannon. What a sport !!! Even though the weather was cool with so much cloud and no sun it was very humid and we returned to the hotel around 330pm drenched in sweat. Nothing that a cool room could not fix !!! It was great to be clean, on a cool bed and next to wine from 4pm – an early start to complete this post in style. That night was grand. Great home cooked food, plenty of wine and plenty of James Bond – my China companion !!!

I may not be James Bond but these images certainly are… enjoy !!!