Coal, buddhas, and corn fields [our national week trip]

Never let it be said that there's no such thing as "not crowded" in China. I was half-expecting to get trampled by tourists running amok during National Week, but lo, sometimes I almost thought we had Shanxi all to ourselves. That may be, of course, due to the fact that Shanxi (and Datong in particular) is known more for its coal mines and accompanying dust, smog, and accidents, rather than for its scenery and history. So on our way to the Yungang Grottoes, Hengshan, and Pingyao, we also caught a fair face full of coal dust and exhaust.

Still, that's not to say we were entirely without crowds. We had to make our way through this to get tickets to our next destination.


Imagine that crowd stretching in all directions. Teeming. It didn't really help that after finally buying tickets I promptly commenced to lose mine (Y90!) somewhere between the (dirty, crowded) bathroom, the (equally crowded, perhaps also dirty) waiting room, and a parking lot filled with buses. Through sheer luck I did find my ticket, though only because Clifford made me go look for it. (I was ready to fatalistically despair, somewhat uncharacteristically of me.)

On Lonely Planet's suggestion, we went on a 15min. walk to the "wild Great Wall" (as in, unrestored, untended, left to crumble and erode and be scavenged). This walk led us through corn fields and a village that probably had not seen another visitor since the delusional LP researcher. A group of unruly children convinced us to keep going in charmingly unintelligible Chinese. An old man yelled "OKAY!" happily and energetically as we passed. I mysteriously developed an obsessive photographic relationship with power lines.

And no Great Wall. No Great Wall! Lonely Planet, how could you have been so mistaken and led us so astray? Oh wait, maybe because you are a useless, pompous, shallow piece of shit. I am completely unbiased.

Here's us stumped as to the actual location of the Great Wall. But honestly, I quite enjoyed this random detour. Corn fields and power lines and not a single souvenir vendors!


About another hour later, we finally got to the Great Wall—30 km away by car, not 15min. away on foot. If we were keeping score, Let's Go would win hands down. Anyway. The "Great Wall" was a series of dusty mounds rising behind a little town, where the chief interest was a gigantic fruit market and the arrival of several foreigners by taxi. We were accompanied by some little boys on the way down, very rambunctious and adorable. We may have told them we were Spaniards.


There was also a near-supernatural moment when a storm threatened over Hengshan, one of China's five holy Daoist mountains and the site of martial art heroes, if you believe your wuxia novels at least. What with the sky darkening and the leaves whipping all around us, I was convinced that mountain spirits and stave-wielding Daoists would appear at any moment.

But no large-scale martial arts battles of any kind erupted, though we did find ourselves in indignant dispute with several Chinese tourists at Yungang. Indeed, traveling in China is probably not for those looking for relaxation. At every other step you're either bargaining down ridiculously inflated prices, trying to avoid being scammed, getting rattled on a rickety, fly-speckled bus, or watching out for your wallet. But I exaggerate, as you should know from me by now. And there were moments of peace.