China Day 7

Occasionally something really special comes along and today was such a day. It didn't start off too well. Our hotel does not have breakfast so they give us a voucher for two nearby cafes - one traditional Chinese and the other sort of fast food Chinese. Couldn't find anything like a normal breakfast at the first so tried the second - not much better. Elizabeth had eggs with buns and I had pumpkin soup neither of which was at all appetising. The coffee and tea were both undrinkable!

Our driver and guide picked us up at 8 and we drove for about half an hour to a massive facility where we caught a bus which took us to another interchange where we cought a smaller bus which again let us off at a large parking area. These were huge complexes with check-in facilities - David Our guide said that this site receives about 50 000 visitors per day, thus the size. All the ticketing processes I China are amazing - they all require firstly a copy of your passport and from then on you pass through each section via face recognition based on your passport photo. It takes a fraction of a second to process you so all very quick and simple.

We then had to walk up a very steep, long road to eventually arrive at a level open area and when you look back the Daxiang Mountain which is a huge (1000 ft high) sandstone cliff into which giant figures of Buddha etc have been carved and then coated with render for protection then painted, although most of the colouring has weathered. Scattered across the cliff face are numerous (hundreds) of caves which also include Buddha statues with many supplementary figures. All this is accessed via steps and platforms clinging to the side of this vertical cliff! And yes, we had to scale these steps and view all the caves which also had amazing murals painted on the ceilings. 

This had to be the most extraordinary site we've ever visited. Sorry no picturres possible on th blog but check out "Maijishan Grottoes" and check it out. Amazing falls short of adequate description.

After another wonderful lunch we visited the Fuxi Temple in Tianshui. Again a beautiful complex.

One of those "special" tourist happenings - as we were leaving via a huge town square we noticed some women dancing  with silk ribbons and singing to an orchestra of Chinese instruments so went over. Also got some photos of guys playing "foot badminton" nearby. Very friendly crowd again an Robyn was invited to join the dancers - they seem to love her grey hair! That went on for quite a while but we had a. Great time interacting with the crowd and some of the kids.

Back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. EXHAUSTED!