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Published: December 3rd 2015
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Monday 26th October 2015 We checked out of our Beijing Hostel and headed to the train station where we were taking the super fast train again, this time heading west to an ancient town called Pingyao. This is a walled town that has stood for hundreds of years and is popular for tourists who want to see traditional Chinese market streets and houses.
We arrived 4 hours after leaving Beijing. As the train pulled into the station, the only people to get off where foreigners like ourselves. As we exited the train at about 3pm we felt the cold hit us. It felt much colder than Beijing and this was probably partly down to the fact that there was nothing around us at all. For miles it was like we were in the desert, only not sandy but rocky. We wondered where the ancient town was as it was only meant to be 500m from the train station. It turns out that Pingyao has 2 stations, one for fast trains, which is where we had arrived and the other just outside the city walls which served as as slower train system.
We exited the station and took the
only option available and that was a taxi. We showed the driver the name and address of the guesthouse we were staying at and he nodded and smiled quite confidently so we felt at ease that we were in the right place and he knew where he was going. 5 miles later we arrived at the walled city, only cars couldn't enter. This meant we had to walk to the guesthouse, however this proved difficult as the town was larger than I thought and wasn't signposted and all the street names were in Chinese (why wouldn't they be). Also, China has blocked Google, so google maps couldn't help us. We therefore walked around aimlessly for almost an hour asking for help from any youngster who we though would probably speak a little bit of English, but realised they were also tourists here. One guy who worked for a hotel did point us in the right direction, but with all the houses looking the same it didn't really help. We then found a teenage girl and asked her to use Baidu (Chinese google) on her mobile and help us. It turns out she was in the guesthouse right opposite ours!
We finally checked in to our traditional looking Chinese room with the bed being a boxed platform with a mattress and fancy curtains that closed around it (look at the picture). We then decided we needed food so we'd venture out into the streets we'd been lost in for the past hour to find food. We stepped out into the star lit cold sky and thanked the layers that we had put on as it was very cold indeed. We wandered the streets trying to find somewhere but didn't have much luck as most of the shops were closing so we popped into a little shop and bought some noodles. We then sat in the warm room, ate and slept still feeling ill from this cold.
Tuesday 27th October 2015 We were up relatively early to make the most of the only full day we had in Pingyao. Being a small little town this is enough time to explore. In Pingyao you can do 2 of the following things. 1. walk around the little alley ways taking in the sights of the old market town and its ancient buildings, or 2. buy a tourist pass which will give
you access to some of preserved old buildings, plus access to the city wall. The cost of the pass was 180 RMB each, so roughly £18 which we deliberated about before realising that we'd already seen most of the streets this morning plus for over an hour of getting lost the night before so decided to see something a little different and purchase the pass.
The first thing we did before buying the pass though was to eat some lunch. We've found that most of the restaurants here are very traditional Chinese restaurants and can feel quite intimidating especially when as 2 white people you walk in and every single head turns and they don't look away until you've eaten and left. This at first was quite amusing but over the duration of being in China, it is becoming a little annoying and as a result, simply walking into a restaurant to eat is something that we have to discuss. Regardless of this, we decided to venture into the busiest place we could find. We also work with the theory that if somewhere is full of local people it must be an alright place to eat. We ordered some
food and then after eating left to explore the ancient city walls.
We made our way to the West wall which gave access to the only section of the wall that is open. As we seem to be in China during the tourist 'off season' many things are being repaired as was the case with the other 3 sections of this wall. Still, we were able to explore quite a lot and once on the wall walked anti clockwise towards the South Gate which was exit only. Upon the wall we had great views across the ancient rooftops and stopped every now and again to people watch. It was fun to be the person staring for a change rather than being stared at. I must also admit that I did a wee on the wall. Gemma wasn't very happy as she said you shouldn't wee on an ancient wall, (I think that is a well known saying) but when you need to go and there are no toilets its either that or wet yourself.
We got down from the wall and then headed to some of the 20+ buildings the pass offers access to. We didn't visit everywhere
as the tourist information states you need 3 days to visit all open buildings but we selected a few that might be interesting. There were a few good ones and some that were a bit naff. The 2 best ones were the old government building, basically the mayors office, including prison, which was still being used until the 1960's, plus the old bank. Within the Government building we were able to walk through the many offices that were used as an accounting office, courtroom and eating place. Doesn't sound like the most thrilling way to spend the day, but seeing that coupled with seeing the old town still in full swing, it was easy to imagine how bustling this place must have been and the actual pictures that adorned the walls went some way to set the scene. My personal highlight was walking into the one of the prison cells, that as mentioned, were still being used 50 years ago. This was a dark, cold place with a concrete bed and hole in the floor for the toilet, nothing like the penthouse apartments that our government give to inmates these days. Also, walking through the bank vaults was interesting seeing
the old safe that would've housed the towns gold.
After a full day of walking and looking at ancient buildings we decided to head to a restaurant that was recommended for some dinner. This place was lovely and instead of being a bustling place like our lunchtime restaurant we sat in a dimly lit restaurant with the same piano music playing over and over again. We ordered a mixture of dishes and we're ashamed to say that somehow, despite not knowing what we were ordering, we ordered sweet and sour chicken. It was actually very nice.
We packed our bags that evening ready for the 8am pick up that our guesthouse manager had arranged for the next morning. The next day, the taxi took us to the train station in the middle of nowhere and we went through the security scanner (entering a train station or metro station is a pain as its like being in an airport as the scan you and your bags) then sat down and waited an hour to board our fast train to Xian where we would spend just one day to see the Terracotta Army.
Goodbye Pingyao!
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