The Hanging Monastery and Yungang Grottoes are only a train ride away for Beijingers with itchy winter feet, Shannon Aitken discovers

It's hard to believe that a visit to Shanxi, two provinces away from Beijing, could qualify as a destination for day trip.

But with only 270 kilometers between Beijing's CBD and the city of Datong, in Shanxi's northern-most point, it's just a four-hour train journey by day.

A journey to one of China's greatest coal suppliers, Datong, is not exactly an escape to Mother Nature. It is, on the other hand, a place to immerse yourself in history, with two very different awe-inspiring sites - the Hanging Monastery (Xuankong Si) and Yungang Grottoes (Yungang Shiku).

On a whim, a few friends and I decided to take a trip to see these two pieces of history. Short on time, we chose to do it all in 24 hours.