The sights outside the city are far more diverting than those within. Apart from the glorious Yungang Caves , the ancient buildings dotted around in nearby country towns are worth checking out, if you have time to spare. Roads in the area are not good (and often blocked in winter, when transport times can be as much as doubled), but at least journeys are enlivened by great views: the lunar emptiness of the fissured landscape is broken only occasionally by villages whose mud walls make them look like they have grown out of the raw brown earth. Some of the villages in the area still have their beacon towers, left over from the time when this really was a wild frontier.

To help explore the area around the city, buy a map of Datong (¥2) from outside the bus station, as this includes maps of Hunyuan and Yingxian, together with bus timetables on the back. Getting around by yourself is trying and time-consuming, and the daily CITS tour , a painless way to get round the major sights in a day, saves a lot of hassle. The tour, which goes to the Yungang Caves and, depending on the weather, the Hanging Temple or the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda , leaves daily at 9am and returns in the evening and will pick up and drop off at your hotel. Costs vary depending on numbers, but expect to pay around ¥50-100 per person, with a minimum of five in the party (ten percent student discount available), including an English-speaking guide. Buy tickets from the more helpful CITS office in the Datong train station (see "Listings" above). During the tour, the minibus also stops briefly in a village of squat, mud-walled houses and cave dwellings.