More from China -- Headed to PingYao Walled City

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Today, without question, is going to be a do-very-little day for me as getting around the city will be difficult.

Up early, more or less, and sent some emails and tended to this blog; am packed for 4:00pm departure for Beijing S. Railway Station. Because of the national holiday, there is no metro running. I have to take a taxi which will cost about Y40 or so! We’ll see -- turns out to be right on the mark, or the Yuan.

Need to pay up at hostel 4 days @Y200/day -- waste of money for this dirt trap of a Sun Garden hostel, No. 19 DongsiQiTiao Dongcheng District Beijing -- wi-fi password tianyuan2005laoxu.

(DO NOT stay here, and what is more, hostel will line you up with a cheat of a tour guide/operator, Alexander, who will take you to the Juyongguan when you are told you will see Badaling -- cheat and a lier). Room not clean, dust everywhere! Washroom not particularly clean nor nice. But it did work out for me in a pinch. 9 Dragons was so much more suitable, helpful and clean and cheaper too!!

(Psst: just between you and me, or maybe I am wrong; asked to pay, and I only give, them Y600, advantage tourist.)

To be honest, I can’t wait to get the hell out of Beijing.2. Not that it was a mistake returning, but things just went so wrong for me here this time around. Really, nothing went well. Trip to Badaling Wall, not good, nightlife on Goulu not good, hostel stinks. Only one positive was eating at the nice restaurant on Monday after visiting the 2 interesting temples; oh yes, they were very nice to see and photograph.

I need to go for a walk now and eat lunch at the same place I met ZhangQian wen/Helen.

I get to the train station and it is packed with Beijingers, or at least outliers of Beijing, and it is hard to impossible to manoeuver about the station entrance but I get into the place and buy a beer to relax before making my way to Waiting Room #8 for the 1163 train leaving Beijing at 17:03pm and arriving PingYao 7:00am the next day, May2. My train ticket was May 1, but I had intended to do the trip on Apr. 30 and booked an additional day in PingYao??? (My mistake and Yung Ho at the Harmony Backpackers will wonder what has become of me as she asks when I arrive. Fortunately, no cost to pay for my mistake.)

Once boarded on car #11, the poor and standing class, it is a long hard haul to relax; cannot eat because I am sure this would be next to impossible while standing????

What have I got myself into anyway? And, will I really make it?

Well, lucky for me, at about midnight a young girl from TaiYuan, just N. of PingYao, lets me share a piece of her seat; she is about 20 yrs. old and travelling with some of her friends back home from Beijing holiday. We only connect later that night and chat and they ask a bunch of questions, and we become friends; now, they let me sit longer and once one the young girl gets off the train, they say the seat is mine. I try to relax as there is just no way, try as I might, to be able to find sleep on this night.

Oh, by the way, standing in the aisle, I would never believe the number of times people would ask to get past, some more than a few times and still others again and again! That and there is service carts continually passing along the aisle of the train selling fruit and food and drinks, but no leng pijiu?

On the whole the time spent here at Harmony Guesthouse Backpackers Hostel in Pingyao is not terribly exciting but the walled city is an historical site and has all of its ancient charms. It is however also a tourist trap of shops shilling trinkets and more, or less, however, not that much unlike what goes on in cities like markets in the Middle East or like Dubrovnik or Split in Croatia!

I spend most of the time here catching up, both re-energizing and relaxing, while taking 1 tour to Zhang Bi Ancient Fortress and to Wang’s Courtyard home; only worthwhile as I would be 1 extra day in Pingyao with time on my hands and small Yuan to burn. Strolling down the pedestrian walkway, I try to see what it might have been like in China’s best preserved ancient walled city, apparently better even that the walls in Xi'an.

Had planned loading and cleaning up pics possibly loading some onto the travel blog web site. While this was the plan yesterday evening, meeting up with Ben the American living and teaching in Thailand and Balvinder, or Bal as he likes to be called, from London (Indian Kenyan heritage/past journalist/now TSL English) and chatting over beers has prevented my dealing with the pics but I did book 2 nights at Han Tang Inn Youth Hostel accommodation in Xi'an.

NB: Amazing how Harmony Guesthouse pushes coffee presuming tourists like it, or is it actually that they push it because they charge Y28/cup when you could get 2 Tsingtao beers for Y20??!! And, quite frankly, the coffee stinks!

First 2 days go by pretty much unnoticed, and I will have Friday and some of the day Saturday, prior to 9:30pm night train to Xi'an, to lounge about town and the hostel. (Must also deal with some personal matters unfolding at home re SunLife; unfortunately, this is time-consuming and takes away from fun times while travelling.)

Mid-morning, I take on the loading of pics to the hard-drive. And my washed clothing (Y28) comes back clean but not soft like home; still, not too bad for the road!

I while away the afternoon and early evening Balvinder comes by from having shopped for a gift for his Mum and a hat for himself, which he soon begins to think he may have paid a little too much; later, he get another hat for less than half (Y20).

We walk the street to find some food, eggplant, rice and some chicken dish and I feel pleased with what we pay, not too bad food (Y40 each); no beer as they want Y38! You kidding me??

Returning to Harmony Guesthouse, we take a Tsingtao from the lady 2 doors down; colder and, as importantly, cheaper beer (Y6) than our hostel.

Saturday, my last day in PingYao, I am up early as usual and ready for a short and quick trip to the Shaugling/Shoalin Temple nearby, 8:30am. It is worth the effort to be sure, and I “steal” pics of sculptures even though it is not permitted; thank you iPhone!

I am no sooner away than I return satisfied at about 10:30 and have a cold Tsingtao. I shower, pack some and get ready for the overnight bus as Yung Ho seems not to have been able to get me on the overnight train which both she and Jackie Qeng say is always difficult to get from PingYao? Why, I am not sure?

I will wait and relax with another cold pijiu binda/ cold beer and read some possibly and/or check some emails. However, as it turns out, Ho gets me a soft sleeper for Y125 and Y15 commission for her? Sure it is cheap cost to me but still, it is always more expensive in dealing with anything via Harmony Guesthouse.

Later in the afternoon, I meet up with 3 designer university students from Xi'an University, Li Lu, Zhang Xuan and Fang Yuan, all about 21 or so and 1st year students; they are very nice and we chat and exchange pleasantries with each other. I learn a few more words in Chinese and I teach the girls some English as well as how to say hello and goodbye in French. After a beer with them, later, they traipse off to go for a walk and hear some music, which was their primary interest for the evening.

This is pretty much a wasted day after having visited the Shauglin temple since I am operating on the premiss that I had a 5:00pm bus as Hung Ho could not get me a sleeper on the train, but once that comes to fruition, I simply must to try to pass time, as planning anything was not possible. This was to have been a travel day and I treated it as such; how much I sat about depended on a bus at 5:00pm or a train at 9:30pm.

I travel to the train station for Y3 and board, and I get on top bunk; not too bad but can’t do anything so I relax and try to sleep, and I do only to wake at about 4:00am and again at 5:30.

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Photos

Girls from Xi'an
Li Lu, Zhang Xuan and Fang Yuan