Datong and the Yungang Caves

Datong is full of interesting stuff most of them the largest, We visit the 9 dragon screen. The largest in China. There used to be a palace in Datong like the Forbidden city and it was destroyed a few hundred years ago. I bet they are kicking themselves for that one! Anyhow the screen remains and it is a doozie. Funny though it is just sitting there in the middle of the city. No real park or other monuments surround it.
Not too far away is the Shang Huayuan temple, built in 1062, the largest temple room in China. It did seem pretty big....
Finally we trekked out to the Yungang caves. It is a huge complex more than 2 k in length. It is full of caves with Buddhas inside, anywhere from 20 meters in height to 2 centimeters.
The caves were built by an emperor in the 5 century A.D. This particular man was the grandson of another emperor who had a beef with the local monks and had mercilessly killed many of them. The grandson fearing the bad karma and having become quite devote in the interim, looked for a protected area to dedicate to Buddha.