The Beijing-Shanxi trip omnibus continues - piles of photos with a minimal group-caption at the end. These are from Sunday and Monday. And all those spots at right are birds, part of a continuous avian vortex around the ancient wooden pagoda at Yingxian, protectors, I fancied, against insect evil.
Fruit stand. Road west from Datong to Yungang, and some of the faux-ancient horrors built around it, including a fake tree embedded, my friend X pointed out, in the stumps of real trees. But no matter, the 5th-early 6th century CE grottoes are out of this world... the more time-worn somehow especially. To close a sign as we returned to Datong, observed only in the breach (but horse-drawn carriages there were none).
