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Published: March 10th 2010
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Pingyao
A UNESCO world heritage site and proclaimed by experts to be one of, if not the, best preserved old Chinese cities, Pingyao is a city with charms. Pingyao And we certainly had a Hollywood entrance. The pick-up from the station was a local rickshaw - the type which is essentially a 2-stroke motorcycle onto which they somehow weld enough structure to provide three benches suitable for four travelers and their affects. The Hollywood bit came as just before we left our driver (sadly not dressed in a well-tailored suit and white driving gloves) pulled the thick cloth “wall” of the vehicle down before fastening it securely, leaving us cocooned in the dark, windowless exterior. Whether it was for the benefit of us or the locals is unclear. Still, helped the suspense no end.
Surrounding the city, Pingyao's 6km of city walls are almost completely in tact (with a few repairs), and the walk along them that circumnavigates the city made a good start to the visit, and gave a wonderful overview of the city inside.
Outside the walls China is booming nosily and dirtily. But it’s best not to look in that direction.
The historic
Pingyao Fish's Head
This fish's head was perched (pun intended) on top of the city wall. I guess it was dropped by a passing Swallow... tourist sites in the city (despite including the oldest bank in China and a 12th century Temple hall) are not really the main attractions in Pingyao. What is, is simply having a toddle. The collection of small, lively streets are charming and can be wondered gently and enjoyably. You probably won’t even notice the layer of small stray dogs you have to kick to aside to make progress.
One particular thing of note this time of year in Pingyao is the incredibly consistent colour scheme. The bricks, streets, sky and any vegetation are all exactly the same shade of brown, but they are punctuated everywhere by flashes of red decorations. I hope the photos do it justice.
The whole weekend was helped along by the most unfailingly helpful hostel owner (at the Yamen hostel, for anyone thinking of visiting). I’d almost booked it online for 3RMB (30p) each, but luckily it had gone up to 20RMB by the time we actually paid. I would’ve felt incredibly guilty otherwise. The hostel was, in addition, beautifully set around a series of ancient courtyards. Even the “triple dorm” which turned out to simply be a “triple bed” and three duvets caused
enough amusement for it not to matter.
What does matter is the Chinese train ticketing system, which is a little ridiculous. You can only book return tickets for the fastest trains, so you often turn up at a place to find out you can’t leave because everything is sold out. “Mei you” was the answer we got, which directly translates in this instance as “computer says no”. However it turned into a blessing in the end, as it meant we had to return to Beijing via Taiyuan.
Taiyuan - a Backwater and a Capital The detour to Taiyuan provided an interesting opportunity to have a look around one of China’s long array of secondary cities. Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi province, and home to 3.4million people. This makes it seven times larger than Manchester. Together these 3.4million people can proudly muster 3 sights deemed worthy enough to feature in the Lonely Planet. Of which one is a museum that is described as having: “Exhibits that are a bit thin of the ground. No English Captions.” It was for this very reason that we wanted to explore a little.
After an incredibly unauspicious journey in
to the city through grim, sprawling surburbs, where crumbling old buildings and piles of rubble are only removed if they happen to be in the way of some kind of new concrete structure, the centre actually took us a little by surprise. It had a bustling, imposing main CBD complete with skyscrapers, expensive boutiques and luxury hotels. The area would have looked perfectly at home in Beijing. Which made the undisguised stares and camera phones being pointed in our direction all the more noticeable. Estimates at the number of foreigners in Taiyuan at any particular time? We reckoned a 3-digit number absolute maximum. Certainly in March.
Then again there are plenty of other million plus cities in China that don’t any mention in guide books. Maybe Taiyuan isn’t such a backwater afterall. And if you do fancy moving there, apparently you can get a 3-bedroom apartment in the pricier districts starting from around £180 a month...
Shanxi Province Shanxi itself throws up a few interesting points, beyond being the brownest place this side of Gerbil poo (the more Romantically inclined may wish to think of it as the Hobnob province).
Firstly, it must not to
be confused with Shaanxi province, it’s neighbouring province which is pronounced identically, but has a different tone. The extra “a” is inserted for the benefit of foreigners.
My favourite fact about Shanxi is that three million people there still live in caves. Traveling through the province you can see gorges that splinter the whole landscape, cutting through an otherwise flat landscape. Many of these provide suitable locations for ready-insulated, ready-made houses.
Shanxi also has 1/3 of China’s total coal reserves - a modest 260 billion tonnes. Apparently stays in the coal producing areas of the province can quickly result in, among other things, black snot.
On which note...
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Jackie Orr
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Jerry, thank you so much! I'm supposed to be preparing for a 2.5 hour seminar on employment law tomorrow morning and just discovered your travel blogs. Procrastination for the evening complete. It sounds like you're having an incredible time and your updates are hilarious. I've never wanted to visit China so much! Hope the rest of your stay is as amazing as it sounds so far!! Lots of love xxxxx