Blogs from Pingyao, Shanxi, China, Asia - page 2

We checked into our double courtyard Hotel Yide in the heart of what's known as the Ancient City of Pingyao. Pingyao has existed for over 1500 yrs, and was an important town in the Qin dynasty. Surrounded by intact city walls 10m high that were originally built in mud in 800 BC but subsequently rebuilt in brick and stone in 1370. John and I walked most of the circumference of the walls - about 3.5kms in the blazing heat and humidity - why I'm not sure other than we got a good panorama of the Ancient city. But walking thru the town was fantastic - Pingyao is one of the best most preserved of the ancient cities. We visited the old Court and Government buildings, the Confucius Temple built in 1163 , the Taoist temple, the ... read more

1.6.14 YANGZHOU: Distance: 102 Kms SubT. 1,691 Kms Bal 10,302 Kms Road Condition: Good Weather: fine Time in Saddle: 4.5 hrs Av Speed: av. 22.5 kph. Av Cadence. Rpm Elevation: e 1000 m up; Calories burned : Endeavour to upload photos with most blogs, but often internet is to weak to sustain upload. PLEASE NOTE NAME OF PLACE IN FORMAL BLOG TITLE MAY NOT RESEMBLE ANYTHING CLOSE TO THIS TOWN NAMED ABOVE. I DO NOT KNOW THE NAME OF THE PROVINCE, BUT THE SITE WONT OPEN UNLESS I PUT SOMETHING IN THE BOX. THIS WILL LIKELY BE THE FUTURE!!! NB. Apple auto correction changes words after I have written something else. Hopefully this explains why sometimes it seems senseless. Last night in XIAN a few of us went in the evening to the Muslim street market, ... read more

CHINA: Ten New Songs...Party in Pingyao. Escaping the winter pollution of Datong by taxi...hoping the coal smoke would not chase us South...hope our hotel will take us a day earlier...the longest taxi ride of our lives...383 kms...4 hours one way...8 hours return for the driver...price to us well worth it. Ren Cheng has a co-driver...race down the expressway...only stopping to photograph Yamen Pass Great Wall. As we approached Taiyuen, the capital of Shanxi Provence, we saw a pall of smoke ahead, chimney stacks, power stations, the twin pagodas of Taiyuen...black with soot, a farmer hoeing his veggie patch against the wall of a power station chimney, 100 kms of smoke stacks...the power house of China. All I could think of was this is where "The Apocalypse" should be filmed. 108 kms south..walled city approaching...welcome to Pingyao. ... read more

Coming out of Tiayuan airport I have to say my first impression on Shanxi was ’brown’. Autumn is in full swing here with all the fields filled with various crops ready for harvest. The principle of the school I will be working at come to meet me at the airport along with a driver…I still don’t know his name as the principle only referred to him as ‘driver’. The journey to the school (and my dormitory) was about 2 and a half hours as well as a brief stop for food despite me saying I wasn’t hungry as I had eaten on the plane. Once we arrived the first difference I noticed from Yangshuo was that it was cold…as in put a winter jacket on it’s cold. This didn’t really bother me as it was what ... read more

20 octobre 2012 Bien le bonjour, En direct de la Chine! Notre départ du Japon ne fût pas sans regret (je n’étais pas encore assise dans l’avion que j’avais envie de sushis…) mais en même temps nous avions hâte de débuter une nouvelle aventure. Une nouvelle aventure qui avait pourtant bien commencé, avec tous nos moyens de transports planifiés et notre hôtel à Beijing réservé… Nous sommes arrivés au centre-ville de Beijing à 21h30 du soir, et après une heure de recherche dans un quartier qui s’éteignait tranquillement, nous sommes entrés dans un hôtel que l’on soupçonnait être le bon. Dans une petite ruelle noire et presque déserte, si ce n’était des deux dames qui allaient aux toilettes publiques, toilettes que se partagent les habitants puisque les logements n’en possèdent pas tous. Nous sommes donc entrés ... read more