Pingyao

From Bejing and Pi...

Pingyao is a neat old cirty surrounded by a large wall. It looks like it has been dropped down right in the middle of a booming city, since outside the walls, it seems just like all the other busy cities of China. Inside the walls, motor vehicle traffic is very limited and the streets are quieter, more laid back, and not as smoggy (although it is a very dry area and quite dusty). Although the city of Pingyao consists of the area inside and outside the wall, inside-the-walls locals seem to only acknowledge Pingyao as the area within the walls.

CITY WALLS
We spend our first day exploring the street and walk on top of the large wall that surrounds the city. Solar panels are scattered about the tiled rooftops, as well as piles of corn, chickens, and cats. From the wall, we see a mass of gray buildings splashed with dots of red from the lanterns that line the streets. The slower pace and the quietness is a much needed relief from the large, busy cities we had grown accustom to. Pingyao is the first city of many to come where we hear fireworks set off at noon for a lunch time announcement. In Pingyao, there are not nearly as many food vendors as there were in the larger cities of Shanghai and Beijing, so we eat at several different restaurants that prove to be cheap and convenient. Finding the historical places on our own proves not to be easy. Our first day, we try to find several places of interest without any luck, since everything in this town looks identical! We end up playing with a girl about 8 years old and her toy that is equivalent to our hacky sack. The toy has several bright feathers with a flat disk attatched to the bottom. It is a popular game with the Chinese, and several older adults enthusiastically stopped to kick it a few times with us as well. The little girl seemed to have fun playing with us and sporadically would say either "Thank you very much", "So Sorry", or "Hello". She remained very serious the whole time and only allowed herself to smile and laugh a couple times when she seemed like she couldn't contain it any longer - usually this was after Tommy or I did something ridiculous. The game ended about 45 minutes later when she kicked the toy too high and it landed on the roof. Later, Tommy and I bought another one and found the little girl the next day so that we could give her a new toy. She didn't know what to do, but as we walked away and turned around, she had run in to get her mom to show her mom who had given her the gift.

Pingyao are beautiful at night with red lanterns lighting up the streets. We had a wonderful time roaming the streets until someone tried to tackle Tommy for his water bottle that was still mostly full. Luckily, after a couple of minutes of trying to lose the guy, a shopkeeper came out and yelled at the guy. This guy was one of several people that tried to grab our bottles before they were empty in order to add it to their recycling pile. Who knew you had to conceal your water bottles from theft? But, this gentleman's elevator did not seem to go all the way to the top floor. We saw a few other bottle collectors like this, but most collectors were fairly well dressed and seemed very normal.

The next day we had set out to meet Mr. Lui, who we read about in the Lonely Planet as a recommended tour guide. We had run into him on the street the previous day and he showed us a large stack of business cards he had collected from previous tourists with good reviews written on the backs of each. Since we had had no luck finding places that day, we set up to meet him at 9:30AM the next day. Of course, Tommy and I were running behind. Breakfast took longer for our hostel to make, since the electricity was out. We were 15 minutes late and he was not at our meeting spot. The L.P. listed his hostel, so we headed in search of Mr. Lui. We find him at the hostel and Lo' and Behold, there must be 2 Mr. Lui's because this is not the man we talked to before. The real Mr. Lui gives us a great 3 hour tour of the city. Throughout China, we often went into museums, temples, and other sights without gaining much knowledge since information was given mostly in Chinese, so getting a tour guide when affordable, was very beneficial.

Before hopping on the train for Xián, Tommy and I decide to bike an hour outside of town to visit a temple. It is a stressful ride getting out of the city due to cars, bikes, scooters, and people coming from every direction, but soon we are riding on more of a rural highway and have a nice ride on our flat-tired, loose steering, broken seat, one-speed bikes to the temple. They were top Chinese quality! We only stay at the temple for a short time, since we really did not know what all we are looking at. When we head back into town, the one outside of the city walls, traffic has gotten crazier and we have to walk the rest of the way until we get to the walls.


The beutiful greyness of the city as seen from the city walls. And, yes that is a big screen TV on the wall. It seemed to show videos for Chinese tourists.