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Published: April 22nd 2007
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Day 26
Before leaving Beijing we wanted to fit in a brief trip to the Emperors holiday home in the form of the Summer Palace. After a long and interesting bus ride (where it is not clear where you are, what direction you are going in or where you should get off) we muddled our way to the right stop.
Our initial reaction to the palace was "*?@% not more steps " but this was soon overshadowed with superb views and a great all round attraction. The building and temples were very ornate and it was all set on a hillside looking over a huge lake which gave it a stunning backdrop. We walked around the lake crossing a series of fab bridges - all different. It was very windy! Finally we saw the marble boat that the Empress had had commissioned. Apparently the money that was spent on the Summer Palace was supposed to be spent on the Navy and this was her only concession to that fact - fat lot of good - a boat that doesn't float!
After a bit of a flying visit we headed back to Beijing and went to pick up
our bags berfore getting a cab to the station to catch our first night train to a place called Pingyao (bet you'd never guessed that from the title). The station was the craziest we have ever seen. Huge queues to get in followed by an airpot style x-ray machine and then you are sent to a waiting room according to your train number. Essentially this is just a massive room (bigger than your average sports hall) crammed with people sat on their bags. We couldn't even fit in and we'd arrived at the station at the requested hour before we were due to leave. We perched on our bags in the corridor and got a lot of stares being amongst the only foreigners there. Eventually we were herded to our platform and boarded the train where we had booked a hard sleeper ticket. Along the carriage of the train are lots of open comparments with 6 beds (piled 3 high) fronting onto a corridor - with carpet no less. In the little corridor is a small table with two fold down seats and each compartment has a large flask which you can fill from a water boiler at the end
of the carriage for tea/pot noodle making purposes. The beds are not very wide but firly comfy and come with a sheet, pillow, duvet and towel - pretty cool huh? I won't mention the toilets - ok I will as I'm sure you're dying to know... they were troughs with no flushes and best used early on in the trip (unless you had full radiation gear and breathing apparatus).
Day 27
Arriving at 4:30am in Pingyao we stepped out onto a ghost town of a platform in the pitch black. We had organised for a local hostel to book our ongoing train tickets for later that night (only staying the day in town) so we got picked up by a guy from the hostel and crammed into a golf cart type thing with all our bags and taken to the Yamen Hostel. They were great - and in many ways it would have been a fantastic place to stay - we were able to grab a shower, use the internet and relax on the sofa until it got light enough to venture out.
Pingyao itsef is the only town with a complete Ming city wall in China
and is packed with a load of really old buildings. Still with the memories of sore bums from cyling in Beijing we hired some bikes from the hostel for a whopping 7p an hour, and cycled around the city walls and through some of the stunning alleyways and streets within. After a couple of near scrapes with asses (thats the big four legged types) pulling carts we locked the bikes up in the centre of the town and wandered some of the bizarre bazaar type stalls and shops that Pingyao had to offer - picking up a couple of nicknacks on the way.
After spending the afternoon relaxing in the sun we bumped into Carly and Jeremy (who you may remember from previous instalments) and we taught the hostel how to make some cocktails and went out for dinner before heading back to the station to catch our train to Xi'an. When on the train we met a great Irish couple, Sinead and Dermott, who have been travelling in SE Asia. They gave us some great tips in return for some advice on Japan.
When going to sleep we unfortunately found that our compartment had the loudest snorer
in the world (yes Belinda, even louder than Adam after a bottle of vodka) which limited the amount of sleep we got to minutes rather than hours.
Tune in same time next week for - Mark and Chrissie 'Do' Xi'an!
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Why Hi!
Hello My lovelies, just making my day even better by reading your blog! Glad your safe and sound in Chink-ish!! Charl and Si and I had a Chinese the other night...not quite the same hey.. defo wasn't £1.20!! Loving you long time fittiesxxxx