Johannes Leistner

When we reached “the coal capital” Datong (population of approximately 1.41 million), our first impression was that this gonna be a depressing vacation. The smell from thousands of coal fires was every where and within the city centre the dead eyes of many empty houses were watching us. The late winter season with snow remains and frost added another grey layer of hopelessness… In comparison to the flourishing Beijing everything was dirty, noisy and ugly.

Follow my stream during the next days to find out if this impression remained or if it changed

my first train ride in China (from Beijing to Datong) was great fun! only tickets for the cheapest of four classes (which is called “hard seater”) were available, but at least we had seat reservations because the train got really stuffed as you can see here. together with an over 70 years old couple form the States, we were the only foreigners on board. but after the first of seven hours we got to know our neighbours well – even though only one spoke a few words English.

besides experiencing the atmosphere on a typical Chines train ride, it was very interesting to watch the landscape from the window: power plant after power plant, highways, factories, other railway tracks with coal trains on it, construction sides and so on… From this very first trip outside of Beijing I got a good picture of what the Chines economy is capable of! amazing!

At the Summer Palace, one emperor decided to have a copy built of Suzhou’s canals attached with little shops – already back then they were masters in copying things…

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value.”