China Day 8, 13th May, Beijing to Datong

Alarm went off perfectly ay 7.30am this morning for our Train trip to Datong. As we had already packed the night before it was a gentle procession this morning; shower, downstairs for some breakfast, return to room to brush the ivories and then downstairs to check out. Simple affair and was not an issue to leave Janes suitcase at concierge for the 3 days until we returned on Thursday. Had given Alec my backpack the night before which I was finding just too cumbersome, so we were reduced to my wheeling backpack, Camera bag and Janes daypack for the next 4 days.

Caught the subway on Line 5 with a changeover to Line 2 before arriving at Beijing Railway Station. (There are 3 main ones, including West and South). It was once again through the security setup, scan of all bags and people, followed by a frisk down of the guys. Then on to and waiting room 8 and  Platform 12. The “waiting” rooms are just the various sections from which the multitude of platforms run off. There were 15 platforms off our “Waiting Room” and I did see at least 12 waiting rooms, so there must be well over 150 platforms at this station if they are all similar. Needless to say a massive Railway Station. Heaps of food shops (mostly lollies and sweet things) dotted along the aisles of the waiting rooms and after we found a seat I quickly got a latte from Starbucks. Not great but a least a semblance of coffee flavor; beggars can’t be choosers in China when it comes to coffee.

We had arrived an hour before departure, which meant no rushing and good for family relationships 😉. Train was on time and boarding commenced at 10.45. We found our carriage ( No.14) and our seats 27 & 28. It was what was called a soft sleeper so really 2 bottom beds facing and a bunk above each; so four people to the cabin and you could lay down if required. A much more upmarket version than the sleeper compartments in India I have to say. We shared with an older lady and a young girl ( about 6) and her mother ( I gather the child was free).

Train departed on time and is it was a regional rather than fast train, we were looking at an approximate arrival time of 1718 hours after a 6 hour journey. Now to settle down, enjoy the scenery and catch up on the last few days blogs.

The first part of the journey after escaping Beijing was through beautiful rugged mountain countryside and we seemed to be following a river and went through numerous tunnels on the sides of hills. Eventually we ended on a plateau and entered quite dry almost desert style landscape with minimal agricultural pursuits. After 3 hours the train eventually stopped at a large city called Zhangjiakou which appeared to be an electrical generation town with a large number of coal fired chimneys around and a lot of coal trains. We had also passed along the way numerous wind farms and a number of hillsides that were covered with solar panels, so all forms of generation are being used here.

The farming communities were interesting to look at and appeared very traditional still with manual labour, horses, donkeys and carts; and then modern machinery, a real set of contrasts.

Our compartment was now empty except for us two, and the only annoying thing about the trip was that although no-one smoked in the compartments, there was a lot of smoking at each end of the carriage and the air conditioning wasn’t that great, so we will smell of smoke when we get off.  The catering staff continually came but with trolleys of various food and we asked what one thing was they were selling and it ending up being packets of individually wrapped prunes. They were delicious, but given the amount of dried fruit and nuts we have already consumed today, we could well be asking the driver for a toilet stop repeatedly tomorrow.

Finally came into Datong which appeared quite modern with a massive amount of new looking high rise buildings. We later found out this is all part of the modernisation and clean up of this city of over 4 million people in the largest coal producing area of China. All started about 15 years ago and with the demolition of over 200,000 homes.

Our guide for the next two days was there to meet us (Peter) and transfer us to the hotel. A seamless experience and oh my god what a place!! Marble everywhere and gold star service, a massive step up from our usual places. All booked in and off for a walk ( have to get those 10K steps in). Came across not far from the hotel the ancient city walls which were incredible (later found out only built in the last 10 years) and just missed out on the light and water show at 8pm which we will catch tomorrow night. Oh well back to the hotel and dinner before retiring to bed ready for out trip to the Hanging Temple tomorrow.