Old Buddhas, New Locomotives in Datong, China

If your trip to China includes a stay in Beijing, consider an eight-hour train trip from there to Datong, site of some of the world’s greatest Buddhist art and home of the only steam locomotive factory in China.

The locomotive factory is compelling, but first--a few details on a two-day visit to Datong (population 800,000) where we saw cave sculpture created more than 1,400 years ago and a monastery that hangs from a cliff like a mirage out of Shangri-La.

Datong is the second-largest coal mining center in China. On a dry plateau more than 3,000 feet above sea level, the landscape is often blackened by coal dust.

In the 4th and 5th centuries Datong was an imperial city. Rulers of the northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-494) made Datong their capital because of its strategic location south of the Great Wall and near the border with Inner Mongolia. Buddhism flourished. In the 10th Century, Datong resumed importance under the Liao Dynasty, which bestowed its present name, “Great Harmony.”

Modern Datong consists of an old section of narrow streets and low-lying buildings and a post-1949 section that locals compare to Beijing, mostly because a large, square concrete department store, fronted with columns like those in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, stands in Datong’s Tien An Man Square.

Yungang Caves

The most compelling reason to visit Datong is the Yungang Caves, a series of grottoes cut more than 1,400 years ago from the rock face of a mountain and containing more than 51,000 carvings of Buddhist religious figures. The caves are considered a high point in Buddhist art.

According to tradition, most of the caves were carved under the direction of a Buddhist monk, with many caves completed in a 40-year period. They are 10 miles west of Datong and stretch for more than a mile along a mountainside.

Most are two chambers, with the main statue or carving in the rear and the walls and ceilings covered with relief carvings--scenes from Buddhist scripture, floral designs, animal and human forms, stylized celestial beings.

The predominant design influence is Indian, but also obvious are Persian, Byzantine and Greek design, as well as the Chinese motifs of the dragon and the flying aspara, or celestial being. The caves are the earliest example of stone carving found in China.

Artistic Treasure

Erosion and vandalism have taken a toll on the Yungang Caves; an estimated 1,400 statues have been damaged or removed. Yet in the 53 surviving caves a wealth of artistic treasure remains. Among the most unusual are caves five, six and seven.

Cave five contains a monumental Buddha, 56 feet high, sitting on a stone island carved from the center of the mountain.

The largest sculpture in the caves and one of the largest in China, he seems as imperturbable as the mountain. The figure was plastered with clay and repainted during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). On the Buddha’s enormous face are traces of gold paint; the lips are painted red, the hair blue.

Encircling the figure is a passageway used for centuries by monks during their daily chants. The walls of the cave are covered with relief sculpture of smaller Buddhas, asparas and floral designs.

In cave six stands a pillar, about 50 feet tall, shaped like a pagoda and covered with carvings depicting the life of Buddha from birth to enlightenment. Ornate carvings of Buddha and his followers fill the ceilings and walls.

‘Outdoor Big Buddha’

The most photographed of the Yungang Cave Buddhas is the 35-foot figure in cave 20, called the “Outdoor Big Buddha” because it is open to the elements, its wooden protective structure long since crumbled. Like the monumental figure in cave five the “Outdoor Big Buddha” sits serene and faintly smiling, hands folded. Visible from hundreds of feet away, he provides an impressive welcome to the caves.

Apart from the colossal scale of some of the carvings, each cave presents a dazzling variety of design. Especially striking is the repeated depiction of the Buddha, sitting or standing, with a benign, smiling countenance.

Another attraction in Datong is the Xuankong, or hanging monastery, about 60 miles east of the city on the side of Mt. Hengshan.

Like the Yungang Caves, the monastery--a series of pavilions and halls connected by bridges and walkways--is a product of the northern Wei period.

Locals say it was a stopping-off place for monks from northern Shanxi Province on their way to worship at the sacred Wutai Mountain in the south.

Although the structures appear to hang suspended, they rest on timbers that jut from the mountain. Inside, tucked in chambers that seem untouched by the centuries, are statues of stone and clay.

Mountain Terrain

The drive to the hanging monastery takes you from the coal mining environs of Datong into mountain terrain, past occasional villages and hamlets where Puthonghua (the standardized language of the People’s Republic, based on Mandarin dialect) is not understood.

The monastery is accessible from the main road via a narrow turnoff that descends into a level area for parking.

To reach the monastery you cross a wood plank bridge suspended over a ravine, then follow a pathway to steep stone steps that lead to the first pavilion.

Once inside, you climb more steps to explore the structure. The main pavilion provides a view of the valley below.

Other sights in Datong are the Huayan Monastery and the nine-dragon screen. The monastery, near the western edge of the old city contains one of the largest Buddhist halls in China.

Built in 1140, this temple was closed and protected during the Cultural Revolution by order of the municipal government of Datong, but has reopened.

Lotus Flower Thrones

Inside, five 30-foot painted wood statues of Buddha sit on thrones in the form of a lotus flower. Each statue represents a direction taken by the spread of Buddhism throughout the world--east, west, north, south and middle. Amid the Buddhas are tall, wooden statues of disciples and clay statues of guards.

The screen, a remnant of a long-gone Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) palace, dominates a small square off a busy shopping street. About 140 feet long, six feet thick and made of glazed tiles, the screen shows nine dragons rising to fight the sun. (Nine was the number reserved for use by the emperor.)

Because of the proximity of the old city to the Buddhist sights, you can walk from temples into narrow streets crowded with shoppers, bicycles, stores and restaurants.

Datong also has a small Friendship Store, one of the state-run chain of stores throughout China set aside for foreigners.

Recommended for Westerners is the Yungang Hotel. Built in 1985, it is a nine-story building looking out on a flat plain of factories and smokestacks. Rooms have twin beds, desks, TV sets and individual bathrooms.

Plumbing sometimes leaks and the elevators have been known to malfunction. Food in the hotel restaurant is good. Rates: about 100 yuan (about $27 U.S.) a night, double occupancy.

The eight-hour train ride from Beijing to Datong is pleasant on a soft-sleeper accommodation (four beds to a compartment); leave Beijing in the evening and arrive in Datong in the early morning.

View of Great Wall

Travel by day at least one way, as the route passes a few yards from a long section of the Great Wall, wonderful for picture-taking and an unusual way to appreciate the colossal scale of that structure. The rate for soft-sleeper is about $16 one way.

Best times to visit Datong are fall--September, October and early November--when days are clear, and late spring--May and June. Piercing winds from Siberia blow across the plateau in winter, especially in January and February. Strong winds also blow in March and April. In midsummer the city is hot.

Even if you’re not a train buff, riding a steam locomotive in China has to be one of the world’s unusual experiences.

Production of the machines has ceased in other countries, but in coal-rich China about 38 trains a year leave the assembly line, mostly to haul freight cross this vast land.

A tourist in China can take a test ride in a newly completed engine while the fireman stokes the furnace and the whistle blows.

The ride comes at the end of a tour at the Datong Steam Locomotive Factory, a complex 10 miles north of Datong and the only steam locomotive factory in China.

Tea Before Tour

The 90-minute tour starts with a welcome by the factory director, tea in a reception room and a 15-minute video on the history of the factory, which opened in 1959 and employs about 10,000. Then comes putting on hard hats and walking through the assembly areas.

Visitors can stroll past machinery in buildings as wide as three football fields and tall as an airplane hangar. Here and there, employees work with welding equipment.

The last stop in the factory buildings is the assembly point where you may see an engine cabin lifted by overhead cables onto wheels on a track.

Near the entrance to each building stands a chalkboard covered with Chinese characters and decorated with colored chalk sketches of flowers and birds. The characters are the names of workers ranked according to productivity.

The grand finale of the tour is the ride in the new engine. Still wearing the hard hat, you mount a portable staircase and hop onto the train for the excursion across the yard.

The most attractive memento of your trip to the factory may be the certificate, on sale for one yuan (about 25 cents U.S.), proclaiming you an honorary driver of the steam locomotive. Signed by the director and dated, it’s covered in red silk and embossed in gold characters that say, “glorious certificate.”

For information on Datong, write to the Foreign Affairs Office of Yanbei Prefecture, Shanxi Province, Datong, China, Attn: Kang Run Hong.

Or contact the China National Tourist Office, 333 W. Broadway, Suite 201, Glendale 91204, phone (818) 545-7505.