Pingyang and Matian in a downpour

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Hi All,

We said goodbye to the landlady at our inn and asked if we could take her photo. She rushed around to find her traditional headscarf because she said her hair was a mess. She was a sweet lady. We took the bus back to Tongdao and looked for a hotel. The Tongdao Hotel was recommended in Lonely Planet but the staff we very rude and extremely unhelpful so we left in a huff. We finally found a cheap hotel, 4 pounds a night for a double room, and threw our bags down and headed out straight away to catch a bus to Pingyang. As we headed over the mountains, we got up to 2400 metres at one point, the heavens opened and by the time we arrived in Pingyang it was throwing it down. Pingyang is a small town with a wonderful wind and ran bridge with murals inside showing scenes from Journey to the West. Now we expected to find a minibus that would take us on to Matian but the locals soon told us that the only way to get there was to walk and with all the rain we were thinking about giving it a miss and going straight back to Tongdao. Fortunatly a guy was passing with a very small people carrier and I asked him if he would take us and he said yes he would take us and bring us back so we were very lucky. The drum tower in Matian is over 300 years old but it's still in splendid condition. We took some photos and headed straight back and then straight onto a bus and back to Tongdao. Once we arrived back in Tongdao we went out to look around the city and found bridges and towers and a great market to walk around. In the evening we had a nice meal and took a walk along the river before heading back to our hotel to pack our things ready for the journey home.

Enjoy the photos and Jah Bless

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