Blogs from Pingyao, Shanxi, China, Asia - page 4

Voici maintenant la province du Shanxi. Pingyao et sa vieille ville fortifiée qui rapelle la Chine d'antan . . Ville très touristique, mais si on cherche un peu, on y trouve des endroits très typiques. De toute façon, on a l'impression d'y vivre au siècle dernier. Encore une fois , on vous laisse rêver devant ces photos, avant la dernière partie du blogue de la Chine qui suivra bientot: la ville Impériale Bejing (Pekin).... read more

To get to Pingyao from Beijing we took the train firstly to Taiyuan, which took around three hours; we were able to book these tickets through our hotel in Beijing. Taiyuan, being the provincial capital with Shanxi, was as hectic as you could possibly imagine, and we fast became quite the spectacle in this place, especially with what they would have probably considered excessive baggage. Before too long we were off again for the second, hour long train ride. Somehow we had acquired top level sleeper tickets for the short ride, so I craned my neck and nestled between our backpacks on the top bunk (which was quite a struggle reaching as the bunks are three tiered), so that I could be out of the way and out of view from the curious local people, who ... read more

Well, we survived our first overnight train in China. We managed to squeeze ourselves and our gear into a shaky 2-seater rickshaw that took us from our hotel to the train station in Xian. The train station was packed with people, but it was relatively easy to find the waiting area for our train since the numbers are all in english. We had two middle bunks in a 6-bed "hard-sleeper" berth. It was actually pretty comfortable and we managed to get a few hours of sleep along the way. Pingyao is a Unesco World Heritage Site and its well preserved city walls date back to 1370. That's about all we can offer for a history lesson. We stayed at a nice hostel in the centre of the old city and spent our days walking the streets, ... read more

Our trip to Pingyao was wonderful and everything was nice: train,hotel,visits ..... The guide Michelle was a very nice person, with a good experience, speaking a very good english and explaining the visit with accuracy. She knows very well this Province (Shanxi Province) and knows a lot about history and religions. She organized the programm very well because the first day on the way from Taiyuan Railway Station to Pingyao we met a very strong cold sand wind (even with some snow) and she modified the route. During the three days, we have visited all what was planed (Qiao Family Mansion and Wang Family Residence, Shuanling and Zeshou Temples, Rishengchang Exchange Shop, visits in Ming and Qing Street of Pingyao......) and we asked for an extra visit to Jinci Temple (south west of Taiyuan) wich is ... read more

This is where we went for a taste of rural China. Pingyao is a city of only 100 000 people. It was once a wealthy city but in the 17th Century their prosperity ended. Because of this, people couldn’t afford to update their homes so all the buildings are of traditional Chinese architecture. The old city walls still remain as well. We stayed in a hostel which was converted from the owner’s traditional Chinese residence which had been in his family for as long as he can remember. He was a very nice man and I taught him how to take care of his new pet turtle. Besides exploring the buildings, we spent much of our time in this city sitting on different curbs, watching or photographing the locals wiz by on their scooters or bikes. ... read more