We’re not going to catch the train out of Beijing. Our first leg of the Trans-Mongolian train and the cab doesn’t seem to be going fast enough to get us to Beijing West Train Station. It’s about 10 minutes before departure and I’m trying to communicate with my scraps of Mandarin – and frantic pointing – that we need to go faster. The cab driver takes this has a critique of his music and switches from the hip hop station to some fluffy Canto-pop. Actually, the determined rhymes and driving beats of Eminem suited the mood better.

All aboard Beijing, on the first leg of the Trans-Mongolia train

Trans-Mongolia dreamin’

This trip has been a dream for me ever since I studied Russian history at university. The Trans-Mongolian is an offshoot of the longer Trans-Siberian Railway that runs from across Russia from St Petersburg to Vladisvostock on the Sea of Japan. It’s a journey of more than 9,000km (5,600 miles) as cultures slowly change and borders blur.

Our route (if we make the train) begins in Beijing then stops in Datong before wriggling north up through the steppes to Mongolia. We’ll hop off the train in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaan Baatar, before swerving up to Irkutsk where we’ll visit the world’s deepest lake, Baikal. From there we’ll meet the Trans-Siberian as it follows the ancient route of Russian tea caravans.

It’s a long slow haul from here so maybe we’ll break the journey in Yekaterinburg, where the last of the tsars were murdered. Then the onion domes and grandeur of Moscow, before swerving up to St Petersburg. And because we can’t get enough we might keep on to Helsinki in Finland.

But all of this depends on us making that train.

All aboard, Beijing

The cab veers off the main road and we see it in clear English: Beijing West Railway Station. Maddeningly we go into an exit loop, so the sign passes us by twice before we get any closer to it. We pull up out front and I make a mad dash to locate the platform, while my partner, Nikki, unloads the bags and pays the taxi.

There’s a metal detector (why do they need to know if I’m carrying my keys now?) and few gruff officials but then I’m there. There’s a scramble of characters on the departure board, but I can just work it out: platform 6. Doubling back and Nikki is dodging through lanes of traffic wrestling with both bags to get to the same metal detector delay. But we’re going to make it.

At the platform there’s another mix-up. Our carriage seems to be filled with smoking soldiers and our seats can’t be seen for bodies and fug. We grab a conductor and he takes another look at out tickets. He frowns and makes an executive decision that we just don’t know how to book tickets. He takes us two carriages down, where there are fewer soldiers and plenty of free seats. The train lurches to a start just as we drop into our new seats.

The Hanging Monastery

Datong detour

Datong needs a marketing makeover. In the hills of Shanxi, it’s gotten a little lost of the last couple of hundred years and most Chinese know it for coal rather than culture. A friend in Beijing asked me before we left, “why would you want to go to Datong? It’s the sick bowl of China.”

The walls of this bowl are mountain ranges that both protected Datong and made it a stop for camel trains heading north. They traded religion as much as tea or spice. Datong has sheltered Buddhism and it’s best known for the Yunguang Caves, where thousands of sculptures were carved into the sandstone cliff faces that have survived centuries. This is why we hop off the train.

But first we visit the Hanging Monastery, suspended from Heng Shan (Heng Mountain), one of China’s five sacred Taoist mountains. Taoists seek to climb each of these mountains making offerings as they go and as we approach Heng Shan small shrines appear in the hillsides. The monastery itself though is Buddhist so pilgrims gather here from both religions and there’s even a smattering of Confucianism. The monastery has been routinely trashed over years, but has been balancing three religions on this cliff face since the Northern Wei dynasty (AD386-534).

And it’s a precarious balance. Stilts built into the rock support the building but every footstep creaks with weight and another large tour group bounces the structure under us. I’m reminded of every Indiana Jones film where someone would almost certainly hack out a stilt from under this relic and the whole building would slide into the trickle of water below in Jinlong Canyon.

To take my mind off how narrowly we seem to be defying gravity, I ask why so many of the Buddhist statues have been beheaded. “Red Guards,” our guide says flatly. You can build a miracle into a cliff face but you can’t defy the Cultural Revolution.

Onward to Yunguan Caves

Statue of Buddha at Yunguan Caves

We make for Yunguan Caves. More than 250 caves of varying sizes were carved into this 1km stretch of Wuzhou Shan. Because Datong was on major trade route, the caves reflect how Buddhism adapted to China. Earlier caves feature Hindu gods like Vishnu and Shiva, but the latest feature Buddhas who are more Chinese looking as the religion journeyed East.

With more than 500,000 statues from tiny intricate carvings to the 14 meter-high Sayamuni, Buddha burnout is a real risk. A slow wander to appreciate the little differences is ideal, but our guide hurries us along.

On the way back into town small structures pimple the surrounding ridges. These beacon towers from the Ming Dynasty are reminders of the strategic importance of Datong as it was a line of defence against the Mongol hordes to the north. The Mongols swept down to sack Beijing and stretched beyond the reach of the Trans-Siberian with an empire that went as far as Germany.

And in this empire, synonymous with barbarians and Genghis Khan, is our next destination.

-George Dunford

Editor’s note: George Dunford is the author of several Lonely Planet books including The Big Trip: Your Ultimate Guide to Gap Years and Overseas Adventures. George is sending us the occasional trip report from the road as he makes his way from Beijing to St Petersburg, as long as the Great Firewall cooperates.

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