Taiyuan

On our final day of travel, we got up very early and were out the door by seven in the morning. Because there were no train tickets available, and no bus to Beijing leaves from Pingyao, we had to go to regional transportation hub, Taiyuan, to get back to Beijing. We managed to get a bus quite easily from the bus station, but the trip to Taiyuan took longer than expected due to very bad traffic in the city. Upon arrival in Taiyuan, we tried to get bus tickets to Beijing were told that we had to switch to a different bus station. At the next bus station we bought our Beijing tickets for 1:30 so that we would have enough time to go to the museum, which martin was very keen to see. Overall, Taiyuan is a reasonably pleasant city (as far a Chinese cities go), but was very smoggy. On our way to the museum, we passed the coal mining museum of China. The Shanxi Provincial museum is brand new, and unlike the other two provincial museums we went to (Henan and Shaanxi) there was no massive lineup. We got our free ticket and went right in. The museum was very well presented and is the best museum I have seen in China. Unfortunately the best exhibit, about architecture, did not have any English captions. We had a quick lunch after the museum, and hopped on the bus. For a snack, I bought some delightful spicy baozi. For the entire eight-hour bus ride they showed dreadful movies full of murder and torture. We got into Beijing at nine in the evening.

Qiao Family Compound and Pingyao - Day 3

This was our extra day in Pingyao, so we went at a rather leisurely pace. I slept in until nearly eight (we had been getting up at seven most mornings), and everyone was up by nine. After everyone was ready we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the Qiao family courtyard, about forty minutes away. The Qiao family courtyard is where the film 'Raise the Red Lantern' was filmed, and it apparently it has some quite stunning architecture. The bus we caught was full, and so we were given fold up seats and sat in the aisle. This is standard practice in China, despite the obvious safety violations. We had to take a bus bound for Taiyuan and get the driver to drop us off at the courtyard. It was pretty obvious when we had arrived, as there was a giant parking lot and lots of red lanterns. The walk to the courtyard itself was swarming with tourist vendors and tourist restaurants. The courtyard is apparently very popular with Chinese tourists. Despite it being nearly noon, we decided to have lunch on the way out and get a snack. We bought some more of those peanut butter things that they had been selling in Pingyao. They are flattened by strong men hammering them into shape. It was interesting to watch. The courtyard itself was actually very small, and was absolutely packed with tourists. At some points it was difficult to even move. It was quite a beautiful structure though, with a total of six courtyards and a large garden. We finished looking through it in just over an hour, and as we came out it started to rain. We sought refuge in a tourist restaurant. Unfortunately, the food was dreadful . We ordered some soup, and it was very sour. After bad experiences with bones and chicken it was normal practice for us to ask if a dish had bones in it prior to ordering. We decided to take a gamble here and order something called 红烧鸡块。 The name is ingrained in my mind due to the horror of the dish. When it came we were unpleasantly surprised to discover the chicken foot on top and a near total absence of meat. It was simply disgusting. We were so unsatisfied with lunch, that we had to get an ice cream afterwards to satiate our hunger. We then went to the roadside and hailed a bus bus back to Pingyao. It was almost completely empty, so we had a reasonably comfortable trip back.

Pingyao - Day 2

Had a pleasant breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to the government building. We had tried to go the day before, but we felt there were to many Chinese tourists groups with blaring megaphones for us. On our way there, we decided to go the newspaper museum, which was on the way. It wasn't particularly interesting. The government building was already swarming even at this point early in the morning. We got inside the complex shortly before ten and saw that they had a performance at ten. The performance was very lame and all in Chinese, so we decided to look at the rest of the complex. The complex contained what is apparently the only surviving prison from the Qing era. It was in use until the 1960s.

Pingyao - Day 1

The area around the train station did not impress me too much, as it looked like any other Chinese city, with ghastly bathroom tile buildings everywhere. Where was the best preserved city in China? It turned out to be quite close to the train station. The first site of the city wall was impressive, and inside the wall it felt like we had stepped back in time! Pingyao is what China is supposed to be like, filled with traditional buildings that have not been 'restored'. There is an air of shabbiness that pervades the areas not directly used by tourists. I predict that within a few years Pingyao will be like a theme park and lose much of its scruffy charm after all its buildings have been restored and the locals kicked out to make way for businesses catering to tourists.

Our hotel is located in one of the old Qing-era buildings on one of the main streets. In some ways it feels magical to stay in a building from the 19th century in China, as there are so few that remain. We had breakfast while waiting for our room to be prepared. I had a coffee that made me feel much better and woke me up. Our room contains a triple bed that was apparently used by couples to 'play' during Qing times. After briefly settling into our room, we began to walk through the town. It truly is remarkable how well preserved it is. I bought some old money at one of the faux antique shops lining the street, although I think I paid too much. On our way up the street we went into one of the few non-Qing buildings in town, what looked like a building built during the 50s. Inside they had an auction preview of Chinese antiques. Of particular note was a scroll that they expected would sell for 10 to 20 million kuai. There is only one ticket for all the attractions in Pingyao, so we had to go to the place selling these tickets before going into any of the nineteen sights that line the streets. After buying the tickets, we went into a buildig which turned out to formerly be a bank. During the 19th century, Pingyao was the banking center of China. The bank was very interesting and contained many features that I have never seen in a bank, such as a kitchen for the servants, and an inn for guests. Our second attraction was a house owned by a martial arts master. Unfortunately, nothing ws translated into English, so it wasn't as interesting as it could have been. I did like the taijitiu symbols inlaid in the floor.

At this point we were hungry so we decided to have lunch. We went into one of the many restaurants lining the streets. The restaurant we chose actually turned out to be quite good, although we were appalled when we found out the tea cost 30 kuai! We got Pingyao dumplings, although we all agreed that they were too doughy. But, the traditional Shanxi pork dish we ordered was excellent. Because we were so tired, we returned to the hostel for a nap, which took a couple of hours. I also showered at this time, and it felt good to feel clean after that long train ride. After waking up, we went some more of the many attractions in Pingyao. Near our hotel, we went to the former residence of Liu Lutai, an owner of one of the banks. Many of the rooms had giant heated beds for the winter, including the servant's rooms. Nearby Liu Leitai's residence the map indicated that there was a temple, called the temple of Guanyu. We looked around in vain for a while until we found it inside an elementary school. Apparently at some point the temple was converted into a school. The main temple hall is still there, but looks like it is about to collapse. Next we went to the Town God temple, a Daoist temple. It had a number of interesting things, including a room displaying the kind of tortures that go on in hell. On the other side of the temple was shrine for fertility that had lots of bady statues. Apparently the head of the temple had a special hall at the back for his concubines. Seems a bit odd to me. At the temple, I noticed Martin had been in the same spot for a while. It turns out he had gotten a poem created from his name by someone. You gave him your name and he created a quick poem out of it on the fly. It was only ten kuai as well! We all decided to get one. Across the street from the Town God temple was the Confucian temple, the last stop for the day. A fairly standard temple, the only thing of interest there was a teacher who approached us and asked for help on how to pronounce certain things in a textbook. She taught twelve year-olds at school. Her English was not spectacular, but it was nice that she was making an effort to improve her own English. After dinner, we went to have a foot massage to sooth our aching feet after our ascent of Huashan the day before. It was quite pleasant, although the women thought our legs were very strange due to the hair on them.