Fashionably White

Last weekend I spotted this lovely young bride on the Great Wall. She is wearing white, which is considered fashionable and western-style. Red would have been traditional. Apparently lots of brides now marry in white, and also -- rumour goes -- most spend more on this kind of photo session than on the wedding it self.

More wedding.

I was fashionably dressed in white myself that day.

The Great Wall at Mutianyu.

Snapshot of the Wall from inside one of the watch towers.

In Chinese, the Great Wall is called "Chang Cheng," long wall. I think you can see why.

In het Nederlands: Fotootjes van de Chinese muur. De bruid is niet in een traditionele rode jurk, maar lekker in een "Westerse" witte trouwjurk.

Giant Buddha's at Datong

Back in February I shared some pictures of our road trip to Datong. You could see some pictures of the highway, but you never arrived with us at the final destination.

So especially for you, today some pictures of Datong and the Yungang Grottoes just outside town.

A pagoda at the entrance to the grottoes.It was bitterly cold, so there weren't many people around and we had the place to ourselves.

Your tour guide for the day.

This guy doesn't look that big...

But compare him to the tiny people in the foreground.

There are a totla of 51,000 statues at the Yungang grottoes. (Many thanks to whomever counted them all.) By the way, the site stems from around 460-525 AD, when the Northern Wei dynasty was in charge and adopted Buddhism as a state religion. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Try not to get this guy against you.

Look at me! (Bottom of statue)

Top of statue.

The outside of the grottoes. (All the Buddha's on the pictures before are inside these caves.)

Two classic guys.

Praying for good fortune and winning soccer matches.

One giant Buddha in the distance, and a little one up front.

Datong in the evening.

Wanna buy some meat?

This road in the middle of Datong wasn't particularly great.

These are possibly the best noodles I have ever had. You get the noodles, choose a topping (for me veggies), and then put some cilantro or other greens on top. Yum! We found out later that Shanxi province noodles (Datong is in Shanxi province) are very famous. For good reason, I would have to say.

Slurping is allowed! Sshhluuuuuhrmmhphm.

Simon loves noodles (but doesn't necessarily show it in this picture) :-)

Datong by night. Good night!

In het Nederlands: Dit is het vervolgverslag van ons tripje naar Datong in februari. By de Yungang grotten zagen we vele kleine, grote en enorme Buddhas. In Datong zelf heb ik de lekkerste noodles ooit gegeten.

On the Road to... Datong

West of Beijing is a town called Datong. Last Sunday we decided to take a little road trip to see the giant Buddha statues just outside this city. I'll include some of the sightseeing pictures in a next blog post, but it might be interesting to get some idea of the scenery from our house to Datong.

Beijing -- in addition to being a city -- is actually also the name of the "prefecture," the land around the city itself.

(Unlike Washington D.C. where the "District of Columbia" is smaller than the city itself, the Beijing prefecture is much larger than the city, so you can drive for a while in the countryside and still be in Beijing.)

This picture just above is in the northwest of Beijing, close to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. See the Great Wall?

Driving in China means zigzagging between big trucks.

Another part of the Great Wall.

On the road to Datong - just to show you there isn't always an awful lot to see. It is always very dry here, but this time of year in particular. We crossed many dry rivers and the soil had huge cracks in it because of dryness and erosion.

Driving along.

Arriving in Datong, an industrial city with lots of coal mining. I can't complain too much about the pollution coming from this plant here, as it may very well be supplying the power for my home in Beijing. (And if not this one, another one is.)

My Chinese driver.

People shopping for fireworks and "baijiu" (rice wine) in Datong. It's just three days before the Chinese New Year.

A typical picture in China: Big buildings and lots of construction cranes. As usual, Datong turns out to be a much bigger city than I thought it would be.

The end of the road trip (for now): We arrive at the Yungang Grottos near Datong.

In het Nederlands: Eerder deze week hebben we een uitstapje gemaakt naar het stadje Datong, ten westen van Beijing. Onderweg kwamen we langs een deel van de Chinese Muur bij "Badaling". Dit is een van de meest druk bezochte stukken van de Muur. We zagen ook veel droge grond, uitgedroogde rivieren, en natuurlijk een steenkoolcentrale bij Datong, want Datong is een stadje met veel steenkoolmijnen. (De electriciteit in ons huis in Beijing komt wellicht van deze centrale.) Datong is -- zoals elke stad hier -- weer groter dan ik verwachtte. Overal zijn enorme flatgebouwen en je kan zien dat er nog veel meer gebouwd gaat worden. Aan het eind van de rit zijn we bij de Yungang grotten aangekomen waar we grote, bijzondere Buddha beelden gaan bekijken...