Advertisement
Published: February 11th 2011
BMW donkey
A note: this brand of car is also known in China as: 'Bu Mo Wo', or; 'Don't touch me!'(Delayed blog)
Me and my good friend Leo headed for the ancient, walled city of
Pingyao for the October national holiday. We had originally planned to travel at least one way by train, but although Leo had tried on the first day possible to buy a ticket (10 days in advance in China), by the time he got to the ticket desk, all were sold out. (touts?) So we ended up with a return ticket on China Eastern airlines from Baotou to Taiyuan from where we were going to take a bus to Pingyao. We left on the 1st of October,
the National Day of China, and landed safely with an hour delay at Wusu airport. On my previous trip to
Wutaishan in Shanxi province, we'd flown into the same airport, so I knew the tricks taxi drivers try to play on you. This time it was a very obnoxious and loud driver claiming there were no buses to Pingyao due to the holiday season. He would gladly take us there instead though for 'only' 400 RMB. Thanks, but no thanks. I knew it was all bullshit, so we hopped into another waiting taxi to take us to the bus station. This guy, as
he was steering away from the airport, claimed his meter was broken (just like last time we had flown into Taiyuan). When asked what the price would be then, he gave us the amount of 60 RMB! With the airport being only about 15 km from the city center, it shouldn't have to cost more than 25 RMB. We immediately told him to stop the car, after which we got out and opted for the bus instead. (15 p.p.)
The bus from Jiannan bus station cost a mere 28 Kuai for the 2 hour trip. Although small and not entirely clean, the trip went smoothly and we arrived just after dusk. Walking the short distance from where the bus dropped us off to the north gate, Leo had arranged for the guest house owner to pick us up. At that very same gate however, traffic was gridlocked. About a hundred people or so with their numerous vehicles were all trying to wurm their way through this old and small gate. Our driver apparently was at the other end, inside. When we had finally made our way through and had found the driver, we got in and sat waiting for
5 minutes for the driver to head back out again! I said to Leo 'no way, let's walk'. Although our host insisted we weren't going to find his place due its location in a small alley, I had taken a picture of an English map from the internet before leaving, so I was confident we were able to get there by ourselves. In a light drizzle, this was our first experience shouldering through the crowds on the inner streets of Pingyao which was gonna be our mainstay activity during our holiday.
Tian Yi Inn ('one day inn') in Mi Family's Lane, near the intersection of Cheng Huang Temple and South street, appeared a great choice by Leo. We had to book accommodation beforehand, as more and more guest houses were getting fully booked ahead of the National Holiday. Just off one of the main streets, in a quiet alley, it has a traditional court yard (like most buildings within the walls) and a total of just 13 rooms, all furnished with traditional wooden tables, chairs and most importantly:
'the (炕) Kang bed'. Essentially, it's a platform made of bricks or in a really long time ago, of dried clay, with underneath
it, or within it actually, a wood or coal fire for keeping warm in those long cold winters. Fantastic! Unfortunately, these weren't being used anymore, so instead we used an electricity hungry air-conditioner ...
Since we had arrived in Pingyao early evening, we just had a dinner and a walkabout through the maze of streets before residing to an early night, Kang-style. The next morning we headed out again and found a backpacker hostel that served western breakfast (!) Man, did I enjoy the eggs and toast, bacon, mushrooms, ham and baked beans.
Completely energised after such a calorie-rich brekkie, it nearly came back out again during the visit to the Ancient government offices, which include a court, prison and the
Zhongkui Hall / museum, where statues of gods and demons subject humans to all manner of gruesome deaths.
If for any reason the path to enlightenment was not reached, many statues depicted (quite gruesomely) what the alternative was. Varying from being sawed in two to being boiled alive to having your guts pulled out (again, while alive), are some of the imaginative ways to die. A number of other temples and very well restored building followed, of which
The famous Pingyao beef...
Really fantastic!
(Especially enjoyed with a local Shanxi beer) I can't remember the names. What I do remember is that all of these had a gate coming out into one of the main streets, inside though, it was one courtyard after the other. A wonderful maze of grey brick, topped off by intricate wooden roofs and decorated with the usual red lanterns dangling from the side.
The afternoon we spent walking below and on the outer walls (
chéng qiáng). Dating from the Ming dysnasty (1368-1644),these walls are 10 - 12 m high and have a total length of 6 km. On top are a total of 72 watchtowers. On the outside the bricks are most visible, while on the inside the mud is more prevalent, compacted earth sloping from wide in the bottom to narrow in the top. The ticket to enter Pingyao (120 Yuan) is only valid for one entry to go on top of the walls. A total of 6 gates mark the entrances, 2 on both the west and east sides. Some of the entrances have double gates, an inner and an outer gate. These are called
weng cheng in Chinese derived from the Chinese idiom
Weng Zhong Zhuo Bie
, meaning 'to catch a turtle in a pot'.
Used to check passing travellers as well as to catch intruders, we had some fun taking pictures within these immense brick structures.
Back at the guest house we enjoyed the sunshine and the company of the owner's kids. It was fun to watch the little girl copying her older brothers' kung fu moves, and see the both of them playing in the courtyard. Before I realised I sat there in the sun helping the boy with his English after he had taken out his text book from his school bag.
It really was a fantastic afternoon we had, and drinking a few local beers in the balmy weather (Baotou was around 10 degrees colder) sitting in the courtyard decorated with vines and antique wooden furniture, I was very happy to be there...
That evening we ate at one of the more backpacker-style places, where all the imported brands of liquors were clearly visible behind the English speaking local staff at the bar and the menu consisted mostly of foods from far-away countries. Nevertheless, the pizza, cocktails and other foods of which Pingyao residents probably had never heard of just 10 years ago, did their work to our taste
buds, with the local barbecued lamb (烤羊肉, yang rou cha) added to the foreign flavours, and so it was that we found ourselves, very satisfied, back on the Kang bed watching CCTV before getting the necessary shut-eye.
Day two: A bit of a late start, and a Chinese breakfast to get us going. Since we had missed the show at the courthouse the day previous, we quickly made our way to the masses of people who had the same idea and wormed our way through waving our tickets. We first explored the inner buildings of the compound whilst waiting for 'judgement day'. The performance, in short, told the story of the mistreatment of a father by his son. The judge listened to each of them and passed on his judgement. Leo of course translated the incomprehensible high-squeaked voices to me and so it was that I learned the father was told to be more strict to his son, who in turn had to take better care of his father. As a punishment he received a number of whiplashes to his buttocks. Despite the lack of real talent, I think it was an enjoyable thing to watch and a nice
little insight of what life was like back then in ancient China.
Another building we visited of which the name I can't recall or find, was I think where the monks did their training, it was in fact a very hidden building of which courtyard was completely sunken into its own compound, away from prying eyes. There was a collection of fighting tools hanging on walls and murals depicting fighting between men. We took, like others, the opportunity to get pictures of each other holding these monstrous 'weapons of mass destruction'. Examples of these heavy wood and steel tools for killing and inflicting pain upon an opponent were clubs with a steel, pinned head the size of a football, a type of lance and large metal devices big enough to crush an elephant with, permitting the right amount of force is used on the poor creature... all very entertaining and informative.
We took some relaxation time in one of the backpacker style bars, so reminiscent of the ones you see all over south east Asia; platforms with low tables and cushions all around to lie on and watch the world (or in this case the hordes of
Pingyao south street
Looking down from Pingyao old town's tallest structure; 'Shi Lou', or 'city tower'. camera pointing Chinese) go by, a wood-style bar with imported alcoholic beverages and walls full of inscriptions left by young travelers with the need of informing future guests that they have been there too. Very nice indeed, and a great way to escape the crowds. Leo and I both noticed how some of these establishments seemed to be much busier than others, while bearing a lot of resemblance to one another. Location, location, location..??
For the remaining part of the day we took our tired legs for yet another stroll, this time around the part of the city where we had previously battled the views from atop the wall. Below the wall however, it was a different world.
To me it really felt like you were in between two worlds; one, the walled and ancient brick enclave, the other being the new, modern and white tiled city being built around it. Like I was walking right in between, with the immense wall to protect me. At th east gate I took the opportunity to shoot footballs out of a compressed air-powered cannon (5x=10RMB). Good fun! The ending of the day we took to watch the sun set over this
remarkable antique town from one of the two city towers, seeing the crowds elbowing each other through the narrow streets onto dinner time and smelling the food the hawkers cooked, watching the red of the Shanxi paper-cut artists below and generally contemplating life so many hundreds of years ago...
Something worth mentioning we saw a few times strolling the streets was the making of
ginger candy. A beautiful golden colour, thick dough textured substance wrapped around a metal hook on the outside of a shop. The maker puts a stick of some kind through this substance and then pulls it, wraps it back around the hook, pulls it again and son and on until more and more 'strings' take shape before its taken to rest. When ready, the candy is as hard as a rock but gentle to the tongue. A very interesting sight you wanna look out for when visiting Pingyao!
Another thing not to be missed when visiting Pingyao, is the
Pingyao beef. An interesting note on this:
When the Empress Cixi passed through Pingyao, she tasted Pingyao beef and spoke highly of it. She said,
“by smelling it, one can refresh oneself, and by tasting it, one can recover from fatigue.”
It is said that Pingyao Braised Beef has been
famous since early in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Apparently old ox is the best choice for Pingyao beef. The beef is divided into sixteen blocks according to the structure of the ox; the beef is salted with a kind of local salt for one to three months; the salted beef is stewed with the local salt and alkaline well water for about twelve hours.
On our last day we hired a taxi and driver to take us to [Zhangbi village / ancient castle.
A sight really not to be missed during your stay in Pingyao, since it is less visited, older and much more unique due to the underdevelopment for tourists at the site. The whole village is built according to astronomic rules and under it lie a total of 10 km of tunnels.
These tunnels, dating back to the
Sui Dynasty (581 - 618 AD), were protected from being destroyed during the
Cultural revolution by locals using it as a storage for local produce, and have partly been restored for exploration and visiting for tourists.
It's truly amazing, an intricate network of dirt-packed tunnels, lying under this fortified village, surrounded by this ancient, cracked landscape you see so much
in Shanxi province.
We got there by taxi, privately hired for the day. I can't remember what we payed for it, but I do remember it was definitely worth the money! Windows open and the sun on our face we were driven across the country side for about 30 minutes at a leisurely pace towards this miracle of ancient China. We followed a tour group so Leo could listen and translate some of the facts onto me. After walking the cobbled streets for a while and gasping at the views towards the mountains from temple pagodas on this sunny day, we gathered our courage and headed into the world below. With my 186 cm I could barely pass through the arch-shaped tunnels, Leo had less such trouble... It really was a maze, and so we not too far from the group, in case we would get lost. In every corner there were openings to all sides of the tunnels with sometimes a window, a wooden door, a peephole or a crevice. When we finally got out of the darkness, we were suddenly bathing in bright sunlight with below us the sound of a small river and surrounded by a
cracked, terraced landscape. On our stroll through the village, we stumbled upon a primary school teacher carrying an armful of marijuana plants. When asked what she was going to do with that, she answered she was going to use it in class..... We spent a fair bit of time exploring the village and its temples and I definitely recommend this day trip, it really is a great way to spend a day and be out of the hustle and bustle of Pingyao as well...
Our last stop was at the
Shuanglin temple, which the taxi driver dropped in for free! Just 7km from Pingyao, this Buddhist temple has more than ten halls. Most noticeable, I and Leo found both, were the statues of Skanda guarding the one thousand Buddhas in its name-sake hall. Its facial expression was of the kind I've never see before at any of those numerous temples I've been to in Asia. Really cool fella, with his multiple eyes. We noticed a few clay figures drying on a compound wall next to the temple. perhaps the resident monks are doing some business on the side?
Satisfied but sad to leave, we had a final beer
and some of the Pingyao beef (we packed a few vacuum-sealed pounds of it as well, to take home) and then found a bus to take us back to Taiyuan. Our flight from Shanghai passing through Taiyuan on our way to Baotou was a bit delayed but we didn't mind. It gave us some time to reflect on our time in ancient China and come up with a possible future travel destination. The weather was fine on the way back, unfortunately I didn't see much of the city, although we flew in from the west.
Said my goodbyes to Leo at the airport as he lives in the east part of Baotou and I in the west...
A short but great holiday!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 24; qc: 98; dbt: 0.1271s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
maria
non-member comment
hee!
Hee broer, We moesten er even op wachten maar daar dan eindelijk je verhaal. Mooie foto's! Dikke tut, en vond het gezellig even te kletsen net.