[part 2] The Coal Gasification Plant / 煤气厂

This month, I spent a few days in Datong, and I had time to go back to some of my favorite abandoned places in China. One of them was the coal gasification plant. My many visits there, from 2015 until 2018, allowed me to discover many treasures… If you are interested in the historical background […]

Datong No. 12 Primary School / 大同第十二小学校

Datong is a strange city with a lot of derelict places to explore: residential ruins after demolition, unfinished-abandoned buildings. On the day I found this place, I was looking at demolished ruins in the city center. This used to be a primary school… The slogan says « specialized education » but I could not find information about […]

The light steel factory / 轻钢厂

I am back in Datong for more research here. I already studied this city quite a lot. Among the things I saw when I lived there last year, there was this old factory, standing in front of a newly built compound, making quite a big contrast on the landscape. According to the nice old man […]

[part 2] Bataizi Bell Tower / 八台子大单巴

I already wrote about the lost Gothic church in Shanxi province near Datong during the winter and you can read about the history of this beautiful place in my first report here. But it was such a special place that I wanted to visit it again during the summer. Now that this is done, it […]

The ruins of a coal mining village / 废弃的煤矿村庄

I currently conduct research in the mining district in Datong. Yesterday, as I was coming back from a day of fieldwork in a coal mine area in the mountain, I decided to go down the hill by foot. I followed the main road along the ruins of a major village and there were two interesting […]

Ephemeral buildings, perpetual vernacular architecture: the abandoned yaodong cave dwellings in Shanxi province / 山西省荒废的传统房屋:窑洞

While my visits of abandoned places in China are mainly concentrated on cities, I also enjoy spending time in the countryside. One can find many interesting sites which were left behind. I already wrote a blog article about an abandoned village on an island near Shanghai. But this is not the first time I visit […]

Fantawild Theme Park / 方特欢乐世界

The theme park that never opened… I already found a series of old attractions in Datong, but this time I saw an unfinished brand new theme park. Not far from my strange futuristic unfinished architectural projects, that you can read about here and here, I recently discovered another fascinating ambitious planning project: a theme park […]