Tian Yuan Kui Guesthouse Pingyao

Thursday 8th March to Saturday 10th March 2007 Getting up, dressed and ready to all jump off our sleeper train at 6.30am was a military operation! But we managed it with a few others, arriving on a cold lonely platform.... Jack was not amused, not a morning person! As we headed towards the entrance of the walled ancient city of Pingyao we could not imagine the sight that was about to unfold. We felt as if we had gone back in time to ancient China, beautiful architecture, lanterns, temples, st...

As we left the main town and entered the city walls of Pingyao .......... there was the China that we had been expecting to see since our arrival 2 weeks ago ! In the morning we were greeted by tight cobbled streets, the overhanging roofs of the Ming buildings, courtyards and lanterns, all within the intact original city wall (claimed to be the last remaining one in China). Without having one specific main tourist attraction, for us, Pingyao achieved something that none of the other tourist s...

We're currently in Pingyao which is roughly halfway between Beijing and Xian. Unfortunately we've had to do some back tracking to get here as we flew from Beijing to Xian avoiding the horrendous 20 hour (if you're lucky) train journey. Pinyao is beautiful; it's a traditional Chinese city which is surrounded by a completely intact Ming Dynasty wall, allegedly the last of its kind. It's got ancient temples, narrow cobbled streets lined with courtyard houses whose open doors beckon exploration. ...

Hi from Pingyao Had a lovely couple of days in Pingyao, just chilling out, going on bike rides and both getting massages!!!!!! We arrived off the overnight train, 13 hours sitting up! It wasn't as bad as we feared, but we managed to get into our Guesthouse (the lovely Tian Yuan Kui Guesthouse, highly recommended) straight away, so managed a few hours proper sleep before exploring. We hired bikes and cycled the 14 kiloetre round-trip to the Shaunglin Temple. It was very nice, not very touristy...

Ni Hao, 11 September: na een treinreis van ruim 10 uur lichtelijk gaar aangekomen in Pingyao. Ik had al een reservering gemaakt via het het internet (ook hier) en zou worden opgepikt op het station. Dat laatste bleek niet het geval dus maar soort van golfkarretje genomen naar guesthouse (www.pytyk.com). Alles was nog donker en na een paar keer op de deur te hebben gebonsd werd er eindelijk opengedaan door een aardige heer die nauwelijks engels sprak (bleek later de eigenaar te zijn). Nadat ik...