Pingyou


Advertisement
China's flag
Asia » China » Shanxi
August 7th 2012
Published: August 7th 2012
Edit Blog Post

Pingyou is olde worlde China as you might imagine it, city Walls, dragons wherever you look, lanterns and narrow alleyways. It has been well preserved as a pedestrianised tourist town. The houses are based around a courtyard. It is a very easy town to explore with plenty of shops to entice you too. My initial explorations were up on the city walls looking down on the courtyards below. After tasting the local specialities of Pingyou beef and whined of whole wheat noodle the evening was spent in the "cozy bar" with cocktails. After that relaxation I was ready for a full day of sightseeing. The early morning visit was climbing the city tower for views over the city and the shops below. I then called in on various banking museums. Pingyou was famous as a financial centre and developed sophisticated banks with offices for accountants and managers and rooms for entertaining clients. After all that banking a spiritual break was necessary and I had my fortune told at the Taoist temple. This involved lighting incense, bowing, opening pages at random in a book, having my name written in a book with the word "super" (whatever that means), receiving a stamped piece of paper and finally paying some money. After more temples I switched profession again, this time to the law and visited the prison, torture rooms, and rooms for the magistrate. There was time in the late afternoon for a trip on a three seater bicycle (tridem?). The most difficult seat was the front one for steering such a large beast around the tight corners.

Advertisement



Tot: 0.163s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0809s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb