Thorn Tree travel forum

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1) by bus, buy the coach bus ticket at " Zhong yang Men bus station" it costs you about 180RMB, around 6-7hrs bus ride

2) Datong ? quite a lot polution. Hiking around Datong? hehe , think twice.

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Datong is a dive - terribly polluted, noisy and not particularly friendly. It's worth going there to see the caves and the hanging temple. You can do it in a day and take the first bus/train out. There is absolutely no reason that I can think of why you would want to stay in Datong any longer than that.

"And you tell me, friends, that there is no disputing of taste and tasting? But all of life is a dispute over taste and tasting." Nietzsche

3

Thanks for the quick answers!

I know that Datong is quite polluted, but is this true for the sections of the grea wall like Yanmenguan Pass which are not to far from Datong too?

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We did a hike on the Great Wall starting from Hongcibu to Baoziwan. We also visited Shahukou at 120km from Datong (included a visit to Youweizhen). This were 2 interesting days on and around the Wall. We did not suffer from pollution. We found this information in the Bradt guidebook on "The Great Wall", edited May 2006.

Hongcibu:
We took bus No 8 on Xinjian Beilu, close to where bus No4 leaves. (3Y - 1 hour). We were warned and indicated the right way to go when arriving at Hongcibu village: walk into the village, than keep at the right handside of the Powerplant. This brings you between the old wall of old Hongcibu Castle and the Great Wall. To walk to Baoziwan you need to follow the Great Wall to the left handside, that is between the Power plant and the Wall. Follow the very little path which comes from the watertower. This leads you to the river. There are a couple of wooden branches to cross the river (we have seen no other possibility to cross that little river). Once on the Wall, you can walk from tower to tower. After 5km a part has been destroid, but towers will indicate where you can pick up again. We looked for the first bridge back over that river and returned on the road at Baoziwan. The Bradt guide describes how to get onwards.

Shahukou:
Shahukou is around 120km away from Datong, on the border with Inner-Mongolia. We hired a car to get there (and paid 350Y + 2 times 10Y Toll, CITS at Datong asked 700Y). Bradt describes you can take a bus at the old busstation, to You yu (88km from Datong), where you would take a bus to Helinge’er, however, we did not see any public bus passing at Shahukou ... All other visitors were there on their own transport. The Gate and part of the Wall have been recently restaured. You pay 20Y to get on the Wall and to visit their new Museum. The Museum is very interesting (history of the Wall, and of Shahukou in particular) but all in Chinese. Interesting to see the contrast between restaured and unrestaured Wall. Views are very good, an impression of what Mongolia could be. Only 100 meters from the wall is an old fortified city (Shahukou) where goods were sold between Chinese and Mongolians. There should still be living some 400 people, mostly elderly. City walls are still there, unfortunately we had no time left to go and take a look.
On our way back to Datong we stopped at Youweizhen, an old city which is up to today contained in her old citywalls. It is just along the road between You yu and Shahukou, you can't miss it. The wall and all 4 gates are all still there and in good shape. Never seen this before! Not one tourist around during an october holiday.

For us it was definately worthwile the trip.
If you are into real hikes, there are real ones in the Bradt guide.

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Bernadette is great! She also gave me information before a trip to Yulin and Shenmu several weeks ago. Got to write that one up soon, but I just this evening returned from a long vacation on Hainan Island. Nice, believe it or not.

!! Be warned that "students" who want to practice English with you may actually be scammers. In Shanghai they try the Tea Ceremony Scam. In Beijing it's the Art Student Scam. Be very wary if a stranger wants to speak English with you, especially if you are in a tourist area. !!

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The Great Wall in Datong is nothing more than a few piles of stones. It's hardly a wall at all. Give it a miss.

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1) I think your problem might've been that you've tried to search for trains to "Wuhan" train station -- there's no station with that name. Wuhan has 3 stations, Hankou, Wuchang and (much smaller) Hanyang. Train K381/K384 (2058--0917, 12h19min) goes from Nanjing to Hankou.
Cheers!