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Published: July 29th 2011
PingYao - Ancient City
The Wall and gate housePingYao – The Ancient city and the journey from hell so far on this trip.
For the last 3 nights I have been in the Ancient city of PingYao, the guide book describes it as the best opportunity to see “the old China in action, being possibly the best preserved ancient walled city in the whole of the country.” It’s fair to say it’s an ancient city and a million miles different from Beijing which was exactly what I needed. More on the city in a moment.
As you will have read from my previous blogs I was reluctantly taking an internal flight between Beijing and Pingyao because I could not get a train. Having said that a small part of me was quite relieved not to have the hassle of the trains and buses and afford myself the chance to switch off. It’s fair to say my best laid plans feel apart when I woke up to find the equivalent of a river running down the street in Beijing. After waiting 30 minutes and finally accepting the rain was not going to stop I made a run for the subway and got totally soaked because the distance to
all places is so vast. But I was still happy in the knowledge knowing that was the last of the stress, a small subway ride, the airport express and then on the plane…….oh no, that didn’t quite work out! All flights were delayed and unlike normal airports where the screens indicate the new estimated departure time Beijing has decided the most efficient way to deal with this is just ask you and the rest of the airport to check in, then tell you that you can’t because your flight is delayed and then ask you to try again in 30 minutes. Seriously what the hell is that about, so with a really heavy bag I repeated this process for 4 hours until I could check in, but at least my flight was still taking off unlike many, I had to try and find a positive somewhere.
I knew full well that the delays meant I missed the last interconnecting bus at the other end in a place called TiaYuan. So it was time for plan B, I didn’t have a plan B so it was time for the lonely planet and a few attempts at conversations with the locals.
After formulating a plan I decided to get a bus from TiaYuan airport to the city to catch a train which was my only real option but the last train was going in 20 minutes and the queue for tickets was similar to a crowd scene at a packed out Wembley gig. Things weren’t looking good but I adopted the Chinese way and forced my way to the front and after many attempts with the guide book I got my ticket. Trains in China have 4 classes, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, hard seat and standing. Because I was on the last train and on a last minute ticket guess what class I got, standing, oh joy! After eventually finding my cattle class carriage and boarding the train it was like a scene from slum dog millionaire, people were everywhere, there was no room for me or my bags but it was going to be like this for 1.5 hours and I just had to get on with it. After seeing the funny side of it and finding my smile again a lovely Chinese family took pity on me and woke up their baby boy and re-arranged their ten family members
who were already crammed on to just six seats to create a seat for me, I was truly touched and incredibly grateful. It’s fair to say many Chinese people have very little in the way of material possessions and wealth but what they do have is something far greater, a sense of togetherness, family unity and the offer of friendship when they can see people are struggling or bemused (that was me.) I do not believe a similar experience would have happened in the other classes of carriages, so even though I was not best pleased to be in the standing carriages the experience gained and the opportunity to see the alternative side to Chinese people was worth every minute of my initial discomfort and bad day.
The journey finished with a pitch black ride through the ancient town on an electric golf cart, it was just the most random day of transportation I could have dreamt of, but I was there! What should have been 4 hours turned into 14 but it’s made for many interesting memories.
OK rant over, time for a little bit about PingYao. I soon found out why my hostel was £2.50 per
PingYao - Outside the city walls
Street drinking under red lights night, it would appear I was not with everyone else but stuck down a back alley, there was a very interesting smell inside the room, I did my best to hunt down the offending item but I couldn’t locate it. Having said this I did have a 6 bed dorm to myself so it was nice to actually have a little space even if it did stink of shi………and Im sure it wasn't me who was smelling either before you say it.
The area where most of the hostels are located is on the main road/path within the city walls. The area within the city walls is the persevered section of Pingyao and outside of the walls normal life resembles the rest of china and Beijing but on a smaller scale and less modernised. There is not to much to say about the ancient city and I think the photos will explain in more detail better than I can. It was essential to get away from the main tourist strip because this ruined the whole area because it was awash with neon/led lights and stalls selling souvenirs and other such random delights such as a monkey dressed in a
small uniform, which would happily climb all over you, or as one girl said “it just sucked me off” but she was referring to the fact it had sucked her finger, well at least I think that’s what she meant! If not maybe I missed another first there?!
Because I was only in Pingyao for 3 nights I explored the area within the city walls on the first day and visited another ancient preserved area called Zhang Bi which is and old underground castle, well it was actually very similar to the main area but has a series of tunnels running underneath it, it was impressive to see but it was not hugely different from the city wall area so a little bit disappointing after considerable effort to get there.
On my final night I met up with a great couple from Wigan and we went out for a few beers and some random street food, it was a really great night and we were severed drinks on micro tables and chairs on a major intersection within the city, but best of all the person running the hot food stall and selling the drinks must have been no
older than 7, it was hilarious but he was a great host! Then we found another bar on the way home with a couple of badminton rackets and proceeded to play street badminton until about 1am, it was a brilliant night!
Well that was my flying visit to Pingyao, it just leaves getting the bus back to TiaYuan and then keeping everything crossed that my flight is not delayed again.
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