Day 7, 8, and 9
Day 7 was a long day.  We were required to travel all the way to Gracie's orphanage city, Datong, to apply for her passport.  It was a 4 hour drive in a minivan to get there, then about an hour in the Datong police station taking care of paper work, to then turn around and head back to Taiyuan. 

We were a bit frustrated, because we really wanted to visit Gracie's orphanage while we were there.  Our driver and coordinator were in a big hurry to get back, so they didn't set it up.  We didn't even get to stop to take pictures in Datong.  It is a very ancient and interesting city. 

Datong is located in Northern China, just west of Beijing.  Its location near the Great Wall pass to Inner Mongolia made it a very influential place throughout Chinese history.  The town was founded in 200 BC and was first named Pingcheng.  It was renamed Datong in 1048 AD. 
Datong is an old fashioned coal mining city in China, and still sits on significant reserves of this commodity. Consequently it has developed a reputation as one of China’s most polluted cities. The Datong Coal Mining Group is based here and is China’s third largest such enterprise.

The Nine Dragon Wall is situated in Datong city, Shanxi province. It was a wall in a prince's luxurious mansion from the Ming dynasty. The mansion was destroyed during a war in 1644.  

The Yungang Grottoes, or Cloud Ridge Caves (云冈石窟 Yúngāng Shíkū) are a collection of shallow caves located 16 km west of Datong. There are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas within these grottoes, ranging from 4 centimeters to 7 meters tall. Most of these icons are around 1000 years old.

Further afield is the Hanging Temple (悬空寺 Xuán Kōng Sì) built into a cliff face near Mount Heng. Most of the historical sites in this region date to the Tang and Ming dynasties, but the Hanging Temple dates to the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534).

Day 8 we were just waiting for Gracie's Chinese passport.  We were able to visit the Shanxi Museum to help pass the time. 

The Shanxi Museum is located in a modern four-storey building situated at a prime location along the Fen River in central Taiyuan and features a very impressive collection of artifacts from this history-heavy province. Chinese civilization first began to develop in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces along the banks of the Yellow River, and this handsome provincial museum features some of the best of the historical artifacts from around the province. The museum has on display thousands of objects in a series of well laid out exhibition halls. Permanent exhibits include those devoted to relics from the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages, ancient Chinese porcelain, painting and calligraphy, jades, bronzes, Chinese currency, historical architecture, Buddhist stone sculptures, and Shanxi merchants. 

Gracie would only stay in the stroller for so long, and she is heavy to stay in the sling.  She is very active and wants to be walking around.  That meant Tom and our guide looked at every display very slowly, while I chased Gracie around the large museum.  She especially loves stairs, and she wanted to go up and down over and over. 

Gracie is in the middle of an ancient

Chinese battle.

 

This shows how Datong is situated near the Great Wall and the pass into Inner Mongolia.  It has many rivers nearby as well.

Day 9 was spent checking out of our hotel, getting Gracie's passport, and the long flight down south to Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.  Here is Gracie getting ready to head out of our hotel, into the cold for the last time.  Luckily the weather in Guangzhou is more like the weather in Florida in the winter, warm.