Pingyao - Kung Fu Hustle

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The train journey from Datong was surprisingly empty, Faye and I had an entire compartment to ourselves so we slept soundly to our next destination. The only problem was that the train we were on didn’t stop there. We were told in Datong that we would have to leave the train at Taiyuan and then go to the bus station to catch the first bus in the morning to Pingyao. The bus station was a short cab ride away from the train station and we shared it with a couple we met in Datong (Jennifer & Steve) who had the same itinerary as us. We caught the bus to Pingyao (2 hours) and were dropped off just outside the city walls. We later found out that you can easily get a train from Taiyuan to Pingyao at that time in the morning, it’s cheaper, quicker, and you don’t have to go to the train station. Oh well what’s done is done! We picked up our bags and tramped into the city to find our hostel that we’d booked previously. We lost Steve & Jennifer along the way as they found a cheap hostel and checked in.

Pingyao is surrounded by a completely intact 6km Ming dynasty city wall. It’s claimed to be an exceptionally well preserved traditional Han Chinese city, so much so that the city has been listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The city is packed with museums, temples and historical structures and it’s possible to get a single ticket (125 Yuan) that allows entry into most (19) of them!

Faye and I quickly trashed our room, put some clothes in the hostel laundry, showered (first in nearly three days) and headed out into the city. First off we headed to the west gate as we bumped into Jenn and she told us that’s where you can pick up the ticket to all the sights. We grabbed our tickets and the first thing on our list was the wall. It’s possible to walk the entire perimeter of the city and as we got to the top at the west gate we were offered bicycles for hire but we declined and got walking. We were completely alone on the wall and although not very high we were looking over all the rooftops. We headed south and kept close to the inner edge so we could what was happening in the city. It was a nice day and a very pleasant walk and many people below shout hello at you as you walk around. We saw cats sunning themselves and corn drying on many of the roofs and once a lady came out to use her toilet (a hole in the ground in the garden) and although she saw we were there she carried on regardless. We promptly crossed to the outer edge to at least give her some privacy.

We made it about half way round the wall but the view was starting to get very samey, maybe those bikes would have been a good idea. We finally found a way off the wall that wasn’t blocked and headed back into the centre of the city. On the way back we found a few of the other sights that we were allowed entry into with our ticket and popped in to see what they were all about. Most of the activity in the city seems to be centred along South Street (Nan Dajie) and West Street (Xi Dajie) so we spent a lot of the time checking out all the small souvenir/craft shops that lined the sides.

The next day we had a lie in, checked out of the hostel, stashed our bags and were told come back at 5:00pm to pick up our onward train tickets. So once again we headed out into the city to find some breakfast and check out the other sites that our ticket had to offer. We figured we’d just wander around aimlessly and if we saw something that looked like an entrance (many are tucked in behind shop fronts) we’d head in and check them out. We soon began to tire of this as many of them were based around the same theme, a small courtyard with many rooms branching off relating to finance or martial arts. We found a few temples which were interesting but in the end we hardly did any of the sights on the ticket, but it didn’t matter all that much as Pingyao is an amazing place to just walk around soaking up the atmosphere. This city has been one of my favourite experiences so far.

While we were walking along a taxi driver asked us if we wanted to visit Shuanglin temple, I dug out the guide book to see what it was and it mentioned that it’s an easy bike ride outside the city walls so we headed straight to the nearest hire ‘shop’ and grabbed ourselves a couple for 5 Yuan each. The temple contains around 2000 painted clay figurines and statues dating from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It was well signposted and only took about 20 minutes to get there. It wasn’t very large but well worth the effort as it was completely empty and very interesting. We spent an hour nosing around all the rooms and snapping away like paparazzi before jumping back on the bikes and heading back.

When we headed back to our hostel to pick up the train tickets we were given faxed copies with Taiyuan as the originating destination, which seemed a bit suspect but we went with the flow. Once we got to the train station we met up with Jennifer and Steve again and they also had faxed copies of their tickets too, as did all the travellers we talked to at the station, either we’ve all been scammed or this is normal practice. When it was time, we boarded the train with no problems at all so we were all worried for nothing. We found our bunks (middle) and settled down for the night. The train left at 7:40 so it was nice to chill on the train for a while before they turned off the lights.

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Photos

Pingyao
Walking the city walls...

Pingyao
One of the main streets, with the bell tower in the distance...

Pingyao
The view of the streets below from the city walls.

Shuanglin Temple
Creepy...

Shuanglin Temple
Some of the many figurines within the temple.

Comments

[Jenn]

Front Page Stars
Hi guys! I was just signing out and saw you are on the Front Page! Yay! I'm off to Chengdu today on a bus this time. Have a safe trip back home and I look forward to hearing more from you. It was great traveling around with you! Love, Jenn