Zoe
Yes I was looking at North station.
Could the Datong-Yungang journey be shorter by taxi or is the Datong traffic really bad?
If we were to make a Shaanxi hotspot what do you feel would be a good centre?
I was looking at Taiyuan however the journey to Datong from Taiyuan takes much longer than Beijing though I think a Taiyuan hotspot could work with Ping Yao, Xi'an, Yin Xu and Some of Beijing's sites (grand canal in zhengzhou could also work)

The Datong South station is southeast of town and a taxi/car ride will circumvent the major downtown traffic. Map says the ride is 40min but I would go with 50-60min instead. Buses will always go to town first, then you need to exchange to another one to the grottos. Cheap, slow, but doable. FYI I did the entire area by tour group bus so I wouldn't know how public transportation really is. The reason I wouldn't "just" go to the grottos:
* Hengshan Mountain, especially for the Hanging Temple, great photo ops and the visit is fantastic. The mountain itself isn't anything special for flora or fauna and the only one of the "five Sacreds" I didn't summit (easy hike but the tour group was leaving).
* Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County, the oldest wooden pagoda.

Both of these are on the tentative list and worth seeing, and I'm sure the latter will be inscribed at one point. Everything else, like Wutaishan, is too far away.

Zoe
Isn't it possible to arrive at Datong at 9:56 take hour long taxi to yungang arrive at 11, spend 5 hours at yungang take taxi back to station at 4 arrive at station around 5 take 5:15 to Beijing arrive back at 7

Yes, if one would want to do that.

The following can be added to Beijing hotspot
1. Yungang Grottoes - Totally doable. I did it as a day trip (a revisit ) 2 weeks ago and I even combined it with a visit Liao Dynasty Pagoda TWHS. Traind from Beijing North or Qinghe is just 2 hours and very frequent. From Datong South Railways Station, you can take shared taxi for 30 min to the Grottoes or public bus for 2 hours (need to transfer in Datong city center)
2. Chengde Mountain Resort - Trains from Beijing East Railway Station to Chengde South is just 1h and frequent. From Chengde South Railway, you can take a bus to the scenic area.
3. Taishan - trains from Beijing South to Tai'an is just 2 hours and frequent. Tourist bus from railway station to cable car area
4. Confucius Temple, Mansion, Cemetery - Trains to Qufu East is 2.5 hours. Public bus from station to scenic area (30 m). Can even be combined for a long day trip with Taishan

Shenyang with Imperial Palace and Imperial Tombs component can now be done as day trip from Beijing. It is just less than 3h away.

The best way way to visit Beijing hotspot is to book hotels in two different areas.
* Hotel near Beijing North or Qinghe Railway - this is very convenient to visit Summer Palace, Great Wall (direct train to Badaling), Ming Tomb, Yungang Grottoes, Peking Man Site
* Hotel in center or east Area - best for visiting Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Grand Canal, Chengde Mountain Resort, Qufu, Taishan

Fujian Hotspot
Center: either Quanzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou

* Gulangyu - 20 mins ferry from Xiamen Port
* Fujian Tulou - Fast Train to Nanjing Railway Station (2.5 hours from Fuzhou/1 hour from Xiamen or Quanzhou) + Tourist bus to Tianloukeng Tulou (1h)
* China Danxia - Fast Train to Taining (1 hour from Fuzhou/2.5 hours from Quanzhou/3 hours from Xiamen) + Local bus to Daijin Lake Scenic Area (30 mins)
* Wuyishan - Fast Train To Wuyishan North or Nanping (3-4h from Xiamen/1-1.5h from Fuzhou/2-3h from Quanzhou) + Direct bus to Scenic Area (1 h)
* Sanqingshan - Fast Train to Shanrao (1.5-2h from Fuzhou/3h from Quanzhou/3.5-4 from Xiamen)+Bus to Sanqingshan (1h)
* Quanzhou (soon) - Fast Train from Fuzhou/Xiamen

The only overlap with neighboring Jiangxi Hotspot is Wuyishan and Sanqingshan

So is Florence part of the Rome hotspot because I CAN reach it within 2h by train?

Zoe
Isn't Florence not listed as part of Rome's hotspot because Florence has it's one while Yungang, Chengde, Taishan are not connected to any other hotspot I feel they should be connected to Beijing.

@Zos/Els: Maybe we can write hotspot descriptions as a text to the page? I think Zos' comments are pretty valuable and hidden in the forum they won't help as much.


Agreed. If you belong to another hotspot (Tuscany) yourself, you shouldn't be listed redundantly. Florence would be listed in several other Italian hotspots, if high speed rail is used.


Danxia is in Guangzhou/Canton hotspot, too. But fine ;)

I think these types of very specific connections are something to put in a review, mentioning the option in the review, but... I dont think something as specific as this connection should be in a hotspot.

nfmungard
But Zos has testified to doing Yungang as a Beijing day-trip and as it's not already connected to a hotspot I feel it should be connected with my description perhaps being added to it to explain how this trip is possible, also the trip I laid out shouldn't be the only possible way to do Yungang as a day-trip and was just one example.

What do you feel about sites that lay right between the centre of two hotspots, for example I noticed Himeji-Jo was listed both under Hiroshima's and Kyoto's hotspot, do you feel it should be removed from one.? I think it's fine due to it's location right between the two hotspots.
Also should West Lake/Grand Canal be removed from Jiangxi/Shangrao hotspot as they both lie in Hangzhou which already has its own hotspot.

I'm not against some overlap in the hotspots. For some places it just makes sense if it is between two and the distance not far, like Himeji-Jo. I find the hotspots to be a very useful part of this site and any details about methods and distances is much appreciated. I think we should continue to try to avoid "possible but abnormal" hotspot options unless it is the most usual or only reasonable way to visit a location. We should still be allowing time for quality visits for the site too.

But the most reasonable way to visit is subjective, for example in the Meiji restoration sites it is listed in 3 hotspots as Nirayama near Tokyo, Hagi near Hiroshima and the sites in Kagoshima, you could argue that any of these three sites are the most reasonable to visit as Nirayama is near Japan's biggest city where most tourists enter, you could also argue that either of Kagoshima or Nagasaki's Meiji sites are the most usual as both lie in major cities that serve as gateways to other WHS (Yakushima and Christian sites of Nagasaki respectively), Hagi could also be considered reasonable as it persents a unique view of the sites OUV, that no other component touches on. I feel we should list all hotspots that feature unique components but if it requires crossing through another hotspot then I don't feel it should be listed.

At the risk of opening a can of worms... (but I still have to update the connection).
What about splitting these across 2 hotspots? A Beijing North and a Beijing Central East? Actually Zos gives it away by suggesting to book hotels in 2 different areas. For a normal hotspot you stay overnight in the same place.