 Hanging Monastery, Shanxi |
The province "West of the Mountains" is a land of loess, the rugged dun-coloured country sandwiched between the Great Wall and the Yellow River. From the Loess Plateau a fine, loose soil washes down countless gullies, relentlessly silting up the Yellow River.
Farmers have always struggled here, but merchants prospered for centuries by trading tea, salt, silk and grain between Mongolia to the north and the ancient cities to the south. Buddhist sanctuaries surviving on mountain slopes, clinging to canyon walls or nestled in caves reward the traveller, as do walled cities and thousand-year-old pagodas. More images
|
