Sun Shine Hyatt Hotel

English Corner

by tremendopunto

Chinese are very eager to learn English. Next to school or college classes the yhave so called English corners where they study by themselves.
It was my first time in China so I had no clue. When we strawled around in Datong three locals came up to us speaking in English. They asked us if we could help them with their studies. Because we did not know what to do in Datong we thought we could give them a hand and in return they could show us some places to be in Datong. They said there are only some friends studying with them........when we opened the door there were more than 50 people of every age (mostly school kids) already waiting for us! They all jumped at us, circled and bombed us with questions in English...there was no return! Of course you have to mention that Datong is a quite isolated place where not many tourists go, but this was like beeing a Chinese superstar;-) They asked us everything possible and did some little experiments with us. A woman tried to "feed" us with certain stuff, if we would know it and if we liked it....strange!
It was quite exhausting. Later the school director showed up to take a look at the foreign Aliens. Oh, my god, they are real!!!!
After all, it was quite intersting and we were invited to some local food afterwards.
We have also been asked to stay and teach them. Even my objection that I´m not a native English speaker didn´t matter to them. Now I understand why so many laoweis run around in China as English teachers.

Xuanggong Si, hanging monastery

by sachara

The hanging monastery is built half way the steep cliff of the for Taoists holy Heng mountain. The monastery is built at this spectacular place to avoid the regular floods of river.
Nowadays there is a dam regulating the river and creating a reservoir, which is used for irrigating the dry area.
It was a pity that a large part of the monastery was under reconstruction, when we visited. So we couldn't see the monastery in its full glory.

Driving from Beijing to Datong

by ForbiddenCity

"Test drive my car :-)"

I drove from Beijing to Datong (300Km, 4 hours). The scenery is GREAT. First there was Great wall, than reserviors, mountains, tunnels. Great experience. The highway is excellent and only the road near Great Wall is bit dangerous (lots of curves and many trucks)