Sun Is Out

Monday, June 16, 2008--Pingyao (Continued)

Pingyao is such a nice place. It is the best preserved walled city from the Qing Dynesty period in all of China. It is unbelievable how well the wall is preserved. And inside the walls it is all old and wonderful. Furthermore, only bicycles and electric vehicles are allowed inside the walls, and only bicycles and pedestrians on the major streets within the inner core. The city was the home of a major Chinese bank that grew to have branches throughout the country in the 1800s. That's where its wealth came from and why the buildings are so wonderful here.

I ate dinner at the guesthouse where I am staying. I ordered pork with peppers and had it with rice and a bottle of the local beer. Beer here, by the way, is weak--3.1% alcohol. The food was good. It was nice to have something spicy.

I visited with June and Bill, two Australians who are staying here at the guesthouse. They are both over 75 and are traveling independently. They are covering more or less the same route I am. Originally, they were going to take the train to Tibet, but Tibet is off limits to foreigners because of the recent protests and the crackdown that was implemented to restore order. The couple takes in Chinese students for homestays in Australia when they come there to learn English. They said they get to see almost everything free here in China because of a law that allows anyone over 75 to be admitted for free.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008--Pingyao

I slept so well last night. My bed is big enough for 4 people. It is in the Chinese style--a huge platform covered in a cotton mattress which is really just a cotton pad about 5 cm (2 inches) thick.

This morning, I solved my problem related to my next move. I CAN go where I wanted to go by a morning train that leaves at 7:35. I went to the train station and bought a ticket. I could not get an assigned seat, but many people come here from Beijing on the overnight train sleeper car. The owner of my guesthouse said I should be able to find a seat in the sleeper car that has been vacated by a tourist getting off here. I hope so, because I will not arrive at Hancheng until 13:35.

After getting my ticket, I bought a ticket to the tourist attractions here in the city. They sell one ticket good for admission to almost everything. I toured the bank building, the home of the owner of the bank, the courts and other county offices, the Taoist temple, the wall around the city, and a couple of other major sites. If I were going to be here tomorrow, I could tour more; the ticket is good for two days. It is supposed to give me free admission to the theater tonight for a song/dance performance. I guess I will go to that, although I am worried about it keeping me up too late due to my early departure tomorrow morning.

There has been no more rain since late yesterday afternoon. I cleaned my shoes and a couple of spots on my pants. The sun finally came out today as much as the sun seems to ever come out here in China. Even in these more remote areas, the air polution is so bad that it is often possible to look directly at the sun and see it as a golden disk in the sky. That creates a real problem for tourists. It's almost impossible to take decent photos due to the constant haze which is like having a light fog.

My plans are to stay in a small village tomorrow night if possible. I don't know what I will do about my luggage. Maybe I can store it in Hancheng and just go to the village with no luggage. It is supposed to be another nice, old place called Dangjiacun. I doubt that there will be an internet connection there.