Stayed a couple of days in Chengde, where the emperor had his summer palace, probably as it’s so quiet (dull), but there was a couple of great temples – one a working monastery and the other a replica of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, built to honour the visiting Dalai Lama. I don’t think he stayed long either.
Moved on to visit Datong’s Hanging Monastery, built onto the side of a mountain and the Yungang Caves, home to 51,000 Buddhas, ranging from a couple of inches high to 22 meters.
Made it through Inner Mongolia (which isn’t In Mongolia) via Hohhot (Hohhot? Very hot, seeing as you asked), probably seen the Gobi desert from the top of a pagoda (although it looked a bit green) and survived a night camping in the wild next to a dilapidated theme park.
Currently spending a couple of days in Yinchuan doing laundry and stuff. It’s a nice little city, but there is an incredible amount of building work going on to create endless rows of identical housing blocks. Had a hotpot for dinner last night, where you have to order all of the ingredients individually, then they are cooked at the table. In a big hotpot. Spent fifteen minutes pointing at random ingredients and pointing at guidebooks before a passable selection arrived and I started cooking. A few minutes later the waiter’s 5 year old daughter wanders over and asks in perfect English if I’d like a plate to pile up the prawn shells.
