Blogs from Pingyao, Shanxi, China, Asia - page 8

Hallo allemaal, Vanochtend vroeg was er even sprake van commotie, toen bleek dat we niet vanmiddag om 5 uur pas in Pingyao aan zouden komen, maar al om 7 uur 's ochtends! Hadden wij het even mooi verkeerd begrepen! Gelukkig was de conductricemevrouw zo vriendelijk om aan mijn teen te trekken en heel hard "Pingyao, Pingyao, Pingyao!" te roepen, waardoor we nog vijf minuten hadden om wakker te worden, ons aan te kleden en onze tassen te pakken. Op het treinstation werden we weer opgewacht door iemand die ons snel naar het hotel bracht. Dit keer geen groot zestien-verdiepingen-tellend hotel, maar een leuk authentiek pension met een binnentuin en aangrenzende kamers. Nadat we eerst nog even wat hebben geslapen zijn we het dorpje ingegaan, en wel te fiets! Voor 1 euro huur je hier voor een ... read more

Waking up at 7am on a hard sleeper, after a fitful nights sleep only to jump in a rickshaw to the Hostel we were to pick up our onward Train tickets to Xi'an from was not that nice, especially as Pingyao appeared to be yet another uninspired Asian town, full of smog and road rage. But how wrong I was! How I should have learned by now not to judge too quickly! A huge great grey stone wall came into view, the outer edge of the ancient city of Pingyao, under a deep tunnel and it was breathtaking on the inside, like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia, or at least Diagon Ally with an Eastern touch. We had foolishly booked an onward night train to Xi'an, the idea being to save on accommodation. We hadn't ... read more

Day 26 Before leaving Beijing we wanted to fit in a brief trip to the Emperors holiday home in the form of the Summer Palace. After a long and interesting bus ride (where it is not clear where you are, what direction you are going in or where you should get off) we muddled our way to the right stop. Our initial reaction to the palace was "*?@% not more steps " but this was soon overshadowed with superb views and a great all round attraction. The building and temples were very ornate and it was all set on a hillside looking over a huge lake which gave it a stunning backdrop. We walked around the lake crossing a series of fab bridges - all different. It was very windy! Finally we saw the marble ... read more

From Pingyao we took a night train to Pingyao - a very nice town - again surrounded with walls - this time really old, from the time of Ming dynesty (the ones with the agartalim from the movies) about 400 years ago. This is the area were the movie "red lanterns" was filmed. The town used to be in a rural area so it was not dammaged over the years. we stayed in a chinese style house, with intenral courtyard. We had a huge bed (2x3) made of bricks and mattress on top (typical to the town). A small woden table is standing on the bed for eating. In some old houses here there is a small tunnel under the bed, so you can make fire in it and warm the nights. For 120y (60 ... read more

Not counting Honk Kong of course...Pingyao The train ride from Xi'an to Pingyao was only about 9 hours if I remember correctly and it was even overnight, but it was probably the second longest night of my life. First, since we didn't book our tickets properly and had to upgrade once we were on the train our beds weren't next to each other. We did get bottom bunks which was great, but mine was right at the end of the car next to the open doorway into the bathroom and coincidentally the smoking area as well. There were also extremely loud noises coming out from that area all night and the bright light coming from there was shining right into my bed. To be honest I cried myself to sleep wishing for my mom, not once ... read more