Ancient alleyways

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After four days enjoying Beijing, we left on the overnight train to travel to a town south-west of Beijing called Pingyao. We couldn't get the Lonely Planet recommended soft sleeper bunks on the overnight train as they were all booked, so we opted for the hard sleeper bunks instead. The hard sleeper consisted of an open carriage lined with bunks stacked three high. We were the only non-Chinese in our carriage and I think the only English speakers. The train took 12 hours and we had the misfortune of the top bunks, which meant we were less than a metre from the train ceiling - not good for claustrophobia! I lay there staring at the ceiling thinking of Michelangelo on his back painting the Sistine Chapel for four years, wasn't it? I had no such inspiration! Dan and I enjoyed a tasty dinner of biscuits and cheese and yoghurt (travellers can't be picky about food, it was all we could find in a supermarket), but it was a lot better than the food trolley that went up and down the carriage - full of steaming and smelly unidentifiable things that even the locals didn't touch! All in all the train trip was a reasonable experience, nothing especially to complain about, but we were glad when it was over. It definitely rated better than sitting up all night on a seater train in Egypt!
We arrived in Pingyao and were met with our names on a sign by the lady who manages the hotel we were staying in. Thank goodness for such kindness, it makes all the difference to weary travellers! Her and her husband drove us from the station through the ancient gates of the town, past the town walls, down winding streets, through back alleys and finally to our hotel. We would never have found it on our own, even with a map.
Pingyao is an ancient town with a completely intact wall around it. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997 and rightly so as it's exceptionally well preserved and feels like stepping back in time. It was a prosperous and pioneering banking town hundreds of years ago but then it fell into poverty so everything's been preserved as it was in the Ming and Qing Dynastys; and now, despite its banking history, it ironically doesn't even have an ATM. The town wall itself is quite foreboding - high, murky brown in colour and dotted with imposing watchtowers. The town itself is a sightseeing delight - full of courtyard houses, pagodas, temples, people riding bicycles, wonderful wizened faces, and red lanterns hanging on all the buildings. It very much feels like a proper town, not a tourist trap. There were people going about their daily lives - children on break from school, old people sitting in wheelchairs and watching the world go by, intense games of Chinese checkers played by groups of old men. There were only really two streets set up with touristy shops, and many of the hotels and eateries only had Chinese writing, catering to the domestic tourist market.
We wandered the walls for a while, browsed in little antique shops, took photos and pedalled Pingyao for a few hours on rickety bikes with no gears. Aside from a few motorbikes and vans and the odd horse or two there's really only bikes and carts on the streets, making it very easy and safe to ride around.
After only one night, although it was enough to see it, we left Pingyao to fly to Shanghai. We couldn't face a 26 hour train trip and as it turned out the flights worked out cheaper due to a 50% off China domestic flights online discount. The drive from Pingyao to Taiyuan, where we flew from, was quite unpleasant. Taiyuan is apparently the world's third most polluted city and the air was thick and yellow with smog making visibility of more than about a kilometre near impossible. We passed smoke stacks and factories and hundreds of trucks transporting goods. It certainly made me think of all those items that I own that say 'Made in China'. I hate to think what breathing in such smoggy air does for one's lungs.

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