This was our weekend long excursion trip. We left for the train station on Friday night and returned Monday morning. It was about an 8 hour train ride from Beijing to Datong. We met up with our tour guide in Datong, then took a bumpy, 5 hour bus ride to visit Wu Tai Shan.
Wu Tai Shan is one of China's most ancient Buddhist sites. There are 4 main temples on the mountain. The picture above is from the last temple that we visited. We saw many monks meditating and worshipping on the mountains. There's also a certain mountain that we climbed that has 1080 steps. Supposedly, a monk is suppose to stop every 3 steps on that staircase and use his entire body to bow down and pray.
De is spinning some sort of a barrel. Many of us walked around the building, spinning these barrels. I'm not sure what that's suppose to symbolize but I assume it's for harmony and continuity.
On our way back to Datong from Wu Tai Shan, we stopped at a Buddhist Grotto. There were many caves with carvings and paintings inside. Many of the sculptures were of the Buddha. Each cave had its own little story to tell using the pictures and carvings from the walls. The picture above is from one of the grottos.