Greetings from Datong!!!!

I know you have all been waiting for "the plan" :) Get your maps out and I will tell you the route - it's changed, so be warned :)

Datong is the second largest and the most northern city in the Shanxi Province. If you find Beijing on the map and go directly west about 500 kms you will see it sitting there...smoking and smelling like coal :) This is where we are going to start our cycle touring adventure in China. We are going to head south from here and traverse the whole of Shanxi Province, pop out the bottom into Henan to visit a couple of places and then head to Xi'an in Shaanxi (one more 'a' :) Province to see the Terracotta Warriors and catch the train to Lhasa.

On the way we will see some sections of the Great Wall, 2 sets of Buddhist caves and loads of Buddhist sculptures, 3 holy mountains, at least 3 very old wooden pagodas/temples and a Ming era walled city....all with about 900kms of riding. Whew! That should keep us busy for then next few weeks :)

Around Datong we will see the Yungang Caves (450AD) and some Great Wall (Datong is between the old inner and outer walls on what was the Mongolian frontier). Then we head 75kms south east to Heng Shan and the Hanging Temple (Taoist holy mountain and temple), then 50kms east to Xingxian to see wooden pagoda built in 1056 and then it's about 100kms south to Wutai Shan (Buddhist holy mountain and temples). From there we will take a couple of days to do the 230kms to Taiyuan (the biggest town in Shanxi) and then 100kms to Pingyao, the Ming walled city that is in pretty decent shape. Then we will have 4 days of riding (or we may catch a bus if we are running off schedule) to do the ~400-450kms to Luoyang and the Longmen Caves - when the capital moved from Datong to Luoyang the Buddhists moved too and started building more caves (about 550AD). These Buddhist caves were being carved out at about the same time as the Ajanta and Bhaja caves were being carved out in India (what a way to connect our travels, eh? :). After the caves we head to Song Shan (it's only about 20kms from Louyang to Dengfeng) - another Taoist holy mountain and the home of Shaolin Kung Fu). Then we will catch the train to Xi'an, see the sights around Xi'an while getting our Tibet permits, and then we will be off to Lhasa!

I will keep you updated as we ride along...this is just a PLAN :)

Later!