The ancient town of Pingyao

The Hukou waterfalls we have seen only on billboards.... The recent rains in the mountains have made fear of a possible rise in water level, and the authorities have closed access to the site just before we got to the ticket office. Result, half-day off.... Today we are in Pingyao, 350 km further north, closer to Beijing. Founded 2800 years ago, but the main buildings and basically go back to the structure more than 600 years ago, with the city walls, streets, houses, shops and well preserved temples, presenting the age-old traditional culture of the Han nationality and constituting a historical museum of 'architectural art of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). Pingyao was included in the World Heritage List as the best preserved ancient city in China.

The Yungang grottoes

The Yungang Caves are ancient "temple caves" Buddhist near the city of Datong, in Shanxi province. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient sites of Buddhist sculptures from China. The others are Longmen and Mogao. The site is located near the city of Datong, where we are, in Shi Li River valley at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. The statues are an extraordinary example of the Chinese stone sculptures of the fifth and sixth centuries. The site includes 252 caves and 51,000 statues, the largest, about 17 meters, the smallest measuring a few cm. World Heritage Site since 2001, are regarded as a source of Buddhist rock masterpiece. Next destination before leaving the bikes at the port of Tianjin, the Great Wall.