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Andrew Methven's avatar

Great piece - thanks for sharing!

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Lile Mo's avatar

I enjoyed reading this article and I can't wait for us to cover Datong. our first City in Shanxi is Xinzhou, so we have to wait for maybe season 2. Xinzhou will be week beginning 31 December

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afra's avatar

great to know! Enjoy your shanxi trip!

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Lile Mo's avatar

Am doing the research online. It's still a lot of information every week

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Ryan Buscaglia's avatar

One way to put some visuals to this: Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides begins and ends with scenes from two very different Datongs between ~2005 and 2022

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afra's avatar

Yes so true! Jia Zhangke is a Shanxi boy.

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Ryan Buscaglia's avatar

Didn't realize but that makes sense! There's a scene of the cityscape in 2000s with the OYS song 杀死那个石家庄人 playing that captures the vibe

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afra's avatar

That's great to know. I actually hope to see a “third-tier city cultural renaissance” in the US if you know what I mean

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drllau's avatar

I recall backpacking through Datong in the 90s (last chance to sight the 3 gorges b4 summerged) .... first time I came across black ice (coal dust suspension). I appreciated the history (9 dragon wall) but the museums at that time (even in Forbidden Palace) was just dusty assemblages, nothing like the multimedia interactive displays in west. I would hope that with accumulation of wealth, the municipality would dust off and renovate their rich culture ...

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afra's avatar

The city is having its cultural renaissance now! I'm hoping you could visit Datong again and write about your new experiences.🥹

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