I was warm enough last night, thankfully. The main attraction in the area is the Yungang Caves, which I took a bus to in the morning. I did start raining lightly, so it could have been more fun.
The Yungang Caves were impressive. Carved 1500 years ago and containing about 50000 carvings, big and small, in 21 main caves and many more small ones. It was nice to be there without a tour guide, so I could avoid the big crowds look at them in a different order. One of the caves was unfinished and it was interesting to see how they were cut out by hand. In the floor they would basically quarry out a 1m or so square stones and then carry them out.
The caves are across the street from a huge coal mine, which looks like a city. Datong is known as one of the biggest coal producing cities in China, so it isn’t the cleanest. On the bus back to the city, I heard some really loud fireworks. It was coming from the middle of the street and sounded like a war zone, smoke going everywhere, cars trying to pass. I was thinking, is this safe? I think someone got married.
Today I fed myself on $2 of food, some noodles and some other snacks.