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Published: June 26th 2006
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Pingyao
the roof tops of Pingyao. it is an old city. it was a very rich one untill the end of the 19th century and then is went bankruped so it did not change for over 100 years. Hi all
This week was dedicated to 2 things.
The first was making our way from Kashgar in the south-west of china to Beijing in the north-
east a
total of over 5000 km! The second thing was learning about the history of China. Went to 2 good museums in
Urumqi and Xian and we now know all the Chinese dynasties from 500BC to the last emperor
in the 20th century by heart. we saw archeological sites in Xian the historical capital of China
till about the 10th century and saw endless Confucian and Taos temples in Pingyao - one of
the riches cities in China till the 19th century when it went bankrupted and did not have the
money to modernize in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Beeing a Celeb
Everywhere we go people say "hello" to us and expect us to be friendly. when we wake up in
the train after getting little sleep because of the noise - small kids are told to go play with us.
Although it was their parants who deprived us of sleep due to noise and
Pingyao
rooftops of Pingyao the smell of the food
they make we are still expected to play along. even after a long day of walking in the sun and
sweating, chinese tourist want to take our photograph and we still need to look our best and
be polite.
We now know how it feels to be a celebrity star. The world is round!
Traveling hours by train makes one think but not necessarily important things. On one of the
rides I noticed that on the volume control of my IPOD earphones it says " CHINA". I bought
these earphones in Dallas through the Internet and they arrived there from California.
Bringing them to China via Israel made them travel around the world!
Most people think that Magellan was the first man to travel round the earth but actually he
died on the way back on his voyage. you might mistakenly think that one of his Spanish
crewmates was the first to circumvent the earth but actually the first man to do so was
Enrique- An Filipino slave that traveled to Spain and joined (some
Pingyao
"Temple of the City God " say by force) Magellan's
voyage. When he returned home to the Philippines - 6 months before Magellan's ship arrived
back to Spain - he was the first to circle the earth. Just like my headphones.
Speaking of a round earth - China has only one time zone. The sun sets at 22:30 in Kashgar
but sets at 19:50 in Beijing. Guess we traveled a lot this week 😊
The list
The longest train ride this week was 41hr ride from Urumqi to Xian. Leaving a big city on a
train ride is fun for us because we go ahead of time to the supermarket and buy food so we
do not need to eat the cafeteria food on the train.
Supermarkets in large cities are nothing like the markets around china. in the supermarkets
you can truly get anything you want and not just what has grown in season locally.
This is what we brought to the long train ride:
4 bananas
3 kiwis from Chile
2 oranges from California
600gr plums
Pingyao
main street of Pingyao 500gr apricots
3 tomatoes
4 cucumbers
1 big melon
1/2kg cherry tomatoes
2 red apples from new-Zealand
2 green apples from Chile
1 Cheerios box -
A real treat our first cereal breakfast since leaving home. 1 "Chips-Ahoy" chocolate and peanuts cookie box
1 spreadable cheese with paprika and cucumber imported for Germany -
traveling around the world made us realize that the real contribution the Israeli kitchen to world food is good cheese. the cheese we were able to by was to fatty and smelly like most cheeses in the globe. it also cost 15 percent of the whole buy! 2 500ml coke bottles
2 500ml diet coke bottles
1 red bull
2 canned coffee drinks -
sweet and good to help Yaron wake up 1/2 kg pistachio nuts
1/4 kg black seeds (GARINIM SHCKORIM)
1/4kg peanuts
2 boxes of Kraft crackers
2 snicker bars
400 gr SHIBOLET SHUAL -
For Hagits Breakfasts. 500 gr yogurt
1 chocolate milk box(AMID)
1 milk boxes (AMID)
1 corn can
Pingyao
in the Confucian temple 1 tuna can
3 litter of water
most suprising is the fact that we eat ALL of the above in 1 1/2 days and 2 nights
although we ate a big KFC meal right befor and right after the ride BTW - the whole basket cost less then 20USD
Adrenaline rush.
we stay clear of dangerous sports on this trip. so the biggest adrenaline rush to date was a
random sequence of songs we got in the IPOD during a train ride:
1. Let me Entertain You - Robbi Willimas
2. God is a DJ - Faitless
3. Ein Makom Acher - Mashina
4. Break me out (to the other side) - the Doors
Yaron couldn't rest for hours after that.
actually the random feature of the IPOD is useful but there are song that get chosen
more "randomly" then others. the are usually either one of Coldplay's 3 albums (thanks to
Ohados) or one of the 3 CD from the "4 in the Afternoon" collection from GALATZ's 16:00 in the
afternoon radio program (thanks to Mirit). and when
Pingyao
the city is surrounded by 600 year old walls we want to feel like home one of the Dag-Nachash CDs
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Marg_London_uk
non-member comment
Great Blos
Great blog, we are just about to leave for China (Fri 21/7/06) and have planned a 2 night stopover at Pingyao (from Beijing enroute to Xian); given we have a 13 year old son we think we will now definitely check out the Martial Arts museum (sounded a bit dull until we saw your photos) and the food stalls (felt a bit nervous). The info re purchasing supplies at supermarkets before 'boarding a train ' was invaluable. Many thanks!