Incredible Hanging Temple

- Incredible Hanging Temple -

Datong the city has little to offer but nearby are the very unusual 'hanging' monastery and the Yungang caves.

The Hanging Temple is quite unique architecturally and is over 1400 years old. It is built into the side of a mountain. For support cross-beams were built into the side of the mountain while the back of the mountain provides additional support. There were two principal reasons for building a temple in such an odd location; the mountain provided relief from rain, snow and other natural hazards. The other reason is the Taoist principle of no noise. At that height and isolation they needn't worry about that! In the temple itself there are relics that reference to the three main religions of China: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, which is also a unique attribute of this monastery.

The Hanging Temple, located about 60 km southwest of Datong, China in Shanxi province, is one of the world's forgotten wonders. Clinging to a crag of Hengshan mountain, in apparent defiance of gravity, it consists of 40 rooms linked by a dizzying maze of passageways. The temple is said to have been built by a monk named Liao Ran, during the late Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD) and restored in 1900.

The temple was constructed by drilling holes into the cliff side into which the poles that hold up the temples are set. Interestingly the temple is dedicated to not just one religion, but three, with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism all worshiped within the temple and represented in 78 statues and carvings throughout the temple.

Wax Museum in Kolhapur

Wax Museum in Kolhapur

Bear's attack highly horrible

Bear's attack highly horrible

Living with Half of a Body

Living with Half of a Body


Peng Shuilin had half of his body amputated after being run over by a truck. But he never gave up! His recovery has amazed surgeons after almost two years undergoing a series of operations. The vice-president of the hospital where this 37-year old Chinese man has been treated said: “He is amazing and the only person in the world to survive having so much of his body amputated.” He’s doing well now and has opened his own bargain supermarket - called the Half Man-Half Price Store. That’s incredible. It seems nothing can get him down…

Eight of the World’s Most Unusual Plants

Weird is relative. What seems weird to me might not seem weird to you. In the plant kingdom, however, there are definitely some species that most people would acknowledge are highly unusual.

1. Rafflesia arnoldii: this parasitic plant develops the world's largest bloom that can grow over three feet across. The flower is a fleshy color, with spots that make it look like a teenager's acne-ridden skin. It smells bad and has a hole in the center that holds six or seven quarts of water. The plant has no leaves, stems, or roots.







2. Hydnora africana, an unusual flesh-colored, parasitic flower that attacks the nearby roots of shrubby in arid deserts of South Africa. The putrid-smelling blossom attracts herds of carrion beetles.






3. Dracunculus vulgaris: smells like rotting flesh, and has a burgundy-colored, leaf-like flower that projects a slender, black appendage.










4. Amorphophallus: means, literally, "shapeless male genetalia." The name comes from the shape of the protruding black spadix.













5. Wollemia nobilis: This bizarre-looking tree was known only from 120 million-year-old fossil leaves before 1994; fewer than one hundred exist in the wild. They have strange bark that looks like bubbles of chocolate, multiple trunks, and ferny-looking leaves growing in spirals. They can grow up to 125 feet tall.







6. Welwitschia mirabilis consists of only two leaves and a stem with roots. Its two leaves continue to grow until they resemble an alien life form. The stem gets thicker rather than higher, although this plant can grow to be almost six feet high and twenty-four feet wide. Its estimated lifespan is 400 to 1500 years. Mirabilis grows in Namibia, and is thought to be a relic of the Jurassic period.







7. Drakaea glyptodon: an orchid. It is the color of, and smells like, raw meat. Pollinated by male wasps.



8. Wolffia angusta: the world's smallest flower. A dozen plants would easily fit on the head of a pin and two plants in full bloom will fit inside a small printed letter "o."