Hengshan

In the mountains an hour’s drive east of Datong is a long tunnel through the rock, choked with the heat & exhaust fumes of dozens of  monstrous trucks hauling goods & materials toward Beijing.  Because all roads lead to Beijing.

My few minutes riding through that tunnel are as close to Hell as I’ve ever been.  Harrowing as it was, the taxi driver was our Virgil and saw us through.

We arrived at the base of Hengshan, one of the Five Great Mountains of China.

There’s supposed to be a gondola that takes you to the summit.  The guys at the ticket booth said the gondola was closed because of the snow.  We didn’t see any snow.  We turned around and started driving back down the mountain.