My tableau

While it is possible to get to Datong, Shanxi Province by train, we chose to drive. It is a three-hour-plus trip from Beijing and somewhat precarious due to the countless number of trucks driving according to their own traffic rules along the way.
Datong itself was nothing much of interest to us. It is an industrial city covered in coal dust. It is however, the starting point for most of the tours to the wonderful Yungang Caves and Hengshan Hanging Monastery.
From Datong you can either book a tour with a travel company or venture out yourself – finding the place is not too difficult, espe-cially if you speak Chinese.
Yungang Caves, or Yungang Grottoes, is a UNESCO world heritage listed site and is considered one of the most outstanding examples of ancient Chinese sculpture. All together the site is composed of 53 grottoes with 1,000 small niches holding more than 51,000 Buddha statues from very large to very small.
The grottoes were mainly constructed from 460-525 during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386- 534) under imperial and in later periods, private patronage.