Datong was the capital of the Northern Wei dynasty when its monks began cutting the Yungang Grottoes into a sandstone cliff — 51,000 Buddhist figures that have watched sixteen centuries go by. A frontier garrison ever since, the city has spent recent years trading coal dust for culture: its Ming walls rebuilt and lit at night, its Liao-dynasty temples restored, high-speed trains now running under two hours from Beijing. The air is clear more days than not, the food is hearty frontier fare, and the grottoes alone justify the trip.
