2011 - NZ To SF - Day 101

Day 101: (22 August 2011):
- Drop bags off @ reception for storage. Storage tickets. Breakfasts have pretty good choice. Remember first day happy compared to North Korea. Random Chinese hotel compared to what is probably NK’s best hotel.
- Take bus to near train station. Over 1hr wait. Others also getting concerned. #8 bus.
- Old bus show up. Extremely bumpy ride after turn off to dirt road.
- Piles of garbage dumped over walls down hill.
- Out to the countryside. Passed a surprisingly large city/town.
- See small dirt structures on hills, signal towers?
- get off @ a town. Thought dad had plan/knew where we are going, but turns out not.
- Nice gates at some villages.
- Ask directions in village. Dusty, empty.
- Small shop accessed through a room with bed, weed stove & traditional “kang.” Two old people chatting.
- Person had heavy accent, could not write, but pointed us in a direction. Dad bought a old-looking bottle of Coke on shelf.
- Since said was only 2-3 li, walk.
- Dad wave down a taxi, we decide take ride, he seems to knew where old Great Wall is.
- Pretty far drive, past a factory. Turns out is the coal washing factory Da Bo described to us (?).
- Drive almost to Fengzhen. Down a side driveway with a tourist sign of old Great Wall area.
- Turns out we get dropped off at #8 bus terminus stop.
- Walk through small quaint village with brick / mud blds. Past cool gate & wall.
- Farming village, see fields around.
- Past village, fields, then big wall. Another cool gate.
- Walk through field & up wall.
- Series of walled-off areas. Maybe for traps? Villages? Now all fields.
- Different crops, sorghum, millet, etc.
- Use umbrella against sun when outside village.
- Climb around walls.
- Cool other small village. View of train tracks, cows, Inner Mongolia just across & up hills. Storage sheds.
- Another walled off area: old bricks & tile pieces. Some with parts of words embossed. Old artefacts or recent rubbish?
- See an old wall with large letters carved. From communist times?
- Walk by rows of garden sheds. Modernish road reminds me of suburbs. Sheep droppings.
- Walk past tall old wall into cool abandoned section of village.
- Short chat with some Czech backpackers who hitchhiked here from Inner Mongolia - how did they do that?
- Walking back through town, didn’t take a great photo op of old man sitting with his donkey. Dad take photos of sheep herder.
- Wait at bus stop for a while, then dad ask ladies across street. Turns out bus not coming for a couple of hours at 4:30pm.
- Walk down road & hail passing bus on highway, by recommendation of ladies. See all forms of vehicles carrying coal, from large trucks to old tractors. Small coal pieces on road, very light & feels almost like charcoal.
- Hard to differentiate between buses & trucks.
- 8 van stopped for us, we took last 2 seats.
- Drove straight back to station in Datong. My fold out seat had no back rest. Took a height-limited route through dusty villages (& rubbish on ground), lots of van buses running this route.
- Took cab back to hotel area.
- Walk to explore new walls. As a taxi driver says, crazy the walls were taken down by the Gang of Four onlf a few decades ago, and now they are being reconstructed.
- Very large construction project. Thick walls. Passes (arches) for roads. Pagodas on walls. Will circle all of city centre. Plan is to replace all blds enclosed by walls with old-style blds. Lucky all high rises were built outside of walls.
- Find Internet (place being renovated) & MaDaHa Hotpot from Wikitravel. Dad constantly busy on phone, e-mail. LP place gone, moved, as is part of new renovated area.
- Buy some melons from vendor in truck just outside walls.
- Find hotpot place, still 1hr from serving time.
- Walk around town plaza a bit to wait.
- go back for hotpot. Still sit & wait a bit before start.
- Nothing that special. Somewhat pricy. Donkey pastry.
- Walk around a bit. Final pics of temple by the public square.
- Pick up stuff @ hotel. Bus to train station.
- 1hr early. Try find place for a tea/soda/etc. Can’t.
- See dao xian mian restaurant with noodle-making robot.
- Sit & write in public square in front of station. Difficult, as most surfaces are quite dirty.
- Most uncomfortable train ride ever. “Overhang” seats. Smelly feet/shoes. Crowded. Some people stand entire night.
- Half sleep/awake. Quiet cities & towns roll by outside, with some action at stations.