Monday June 22 - Hohhot

I'm in the dog-box! Mistook departure time for 8:30 am instead of 8:00 am this morning, but still had time to pay the toilet-man another yuen!! We headed back through the grasslands to civilization in Hohhot, population 1.14 million people. The city was founded by one of the Mongol leaders in the 16th Century. It is very modern, and although industrious appears more prosperous than BaoTou. We took a taxi with Mike and Rachel to McDonalds for breakfast/lunch and back to the Da Zhao Lamasery/temple. Haven't quite figured out if there is a difference between a "monastery" and a "lamasery" yet or whether it is like stupa/chorten/pagoda. This has to be one of the most exquisite monastery/temples we have seen. In quality right up there with the hill-top monastery we took the roof-top bus ride to in Nepal, but older, and therefore all the art work is completed. Th temple was built in the Ming period and has been exquisitely maintained, and is still undergoing extensive renovation. Divided into 3 main sections each with its separate courtyards and prayer halls, the statues, artwork, and colours of green, blue, red and orange are stunning. Our visit culminated with the opportunity of one loud beat of the drum which resonated over the courtyard and the drum tower. The square adjoining the temple contained an array of little shops selling everything you need for and from the temples. Touristy, but nonetheless, quite attractively built. Now, we are back in the Truck and off to Datong. The scenery is changing again back to a weather-beaten mountaineous region, no trees, but there are agricultural terraces in the lower foothills. We passed some industrial areas and trains carrying coal to a power plant. Tons of highrises which are probably where the workers live. The scenery deteriorated and the pollution increased as we drove into Datong. Then we ran out of paved road and spent half an hour lurching and bumping along on the dirt street through town in an area where houses were knockd down and the old road dug up, all to make way for the new. Absolutely horrible! As we drove through Datong, we realized this was not one of China's highlights. But all the same, has to be seen to fully understand the very diverse country we are in. So far, the cities we have seen have mainly been quite modern and attractive. Datong, population about 580,000, is grimy, industrialized, dirty, and badly beaten up. Some of the rows of old shops/houses/buildings are slums, probably the reason they are being pulled down. We arrived at the hotel and it was simply the worst we have had on the trip. It was crap, shabby, dirty, and dark. The power had supposedly "just gone out", but as Ray said, the auxilliary lighting had also gone out so- either batteries not tested, or the power had been off longer than they were saying! As luck would have it, our bedroom was on the 6th floor, so we huffed, and we puffed, our way up the stairs with our backpacks. The room was livable, the bed at least had clean white sheets, but the bathroom was sub-standard, old, dirty, and smelly. When I opened one of the cupboards in the bedroom, three little cockroaches scurried to hide from the light under the spare blankets. Plus, there was no water! Anyway, we ended up changing rooms, but nothing improved except that I did not "see" the cockroaches, but of course, I knew they were there!! We met the others for a beer in an outdoor seating area across in the square. While we were chatting a couple joined us: a Canadian guy from Thomson, Manitoba married to a Chinese doctor from Beijing. I might add that we were also joined by about 6 or 8 men who were hanging off our every word, reading our exchange of email addresses, and looking at the pictures on our cameras as we exchanged them amongst ourselves. As I said before, the Chinese are very spontaneous, and none of this seemed odd to them. I guess we are tourists, and fair game!! All of us ended up going for dinner, including the Canadian guy and Chinese woman, to one of the hotels. It was great and only cost Y26 each. We thought about moving over to this hotel for Y260 a night, but decided to suck it up and see what the situation was in the morning.