Yun Jin Cheng Folk-Custom Hotel Pingyao

... is the heart of China's coal belt. Back alleys are littered with piles of the black rock, and the city is dotted with fuming smoke stacks. But what I notice most is the smell. It's in the air here and there's no escaping it. I find myself coughing, snorting and spitting like the locals, my eyes stinging and my head throbbing. We are blessed in B.C. to be supplied entirely by hydro power! But I'm sure this exposure is good for me...not physically, obviously, but something. It better be.

... Langs deze weg willen we iedereen in het thuisland veel groetjes sturen vanuit het land van de sprookjes. China, Mongolie en Rusland wijn echt prachtige landen en hebben alle drie een enorme verscheidenheid aan landschappen, klimaten en culturen te bieden.

We bezochten taoistische, boedhistische, Confucianistische en vuurmensentempels, protestantse, orthodoxe en katholieke kerken, soenietische en sjiietische moskee's en tenslotte ook nog ...

... more private cars this time around. We stand in front of the convenient store/restaurant and approach each car that pulls up. I ask one guy in the car with two women and he gives me the 2nd best answer - sorry I can't take you, there's two women in the car, too much risk. That's what I want to hear, people being honest with me and not trying to make up some stupid excuse like going the other direction even though they just ...

... geopend. Je schat de situatie alsvolgt in: twee taxichauffeurs, een kofferbak met al onze spullen, veel te veel geld op zak (wat we wel weten van Pingyao, dat het binnenland is en dus geen pinautomaat) en je denkt: UITSTAPPEN. Onze spullen werden uit de auto gehaald en toen werd de bedoeling duidelijk uitgelegd door de tweede taxichauffeur: "wadiezie hou nie kwa koy Pingyao kemla ma mong zie si djunohedo Pingyao". De spulen lagen al in de tweede auto en tja, waar onze spullen gaan ...

... by saying "It's only 20 RMB difference, which is nothing, what's the big deal?" to which I bit back, "If it's nothing, why won't you let me have it?" He backed off, just as Mum misheard the numbers involved and though I had agreed to pay 200 RMB instead of just quibbling over 20RMB and interjected that we should leave.

After we got in, me still fuming about getting ripped off, I realized I'd made 2really dumb mistakes. One, I'd shown the guy where my money was and secondly I'd ...

... I do choose to pay the extra are always rewarded with good times and meeting new friends. Beers N Noodles toya.....shane _______________________________________ __________________ The soundtrack to this entry was by Urge Overkill The album was the one and only 'Saturation' _______________________________________ ___________________ A short rundown on the ...

... Bao, Chongning Bao, etc. Altogether there are 231 courtyards and 2,078 houses. East Courtyard, informally called Gaojia Ya, was built during the reign of Emperor Jiaqing (1796-1820) of the Qing Dynasty. It was open to the public as the Art Hall of Chinese Residences on August 18th, 1997. The complexity of the structures will make you feel like you are moving through a labyrinth. It is a ...

... after a few beers!). We've had a lot of laughs and some interesting lessons on Aus! We're going to meet up with them in Xi'an and then hopefully again in Perth (where Andrew said he may take us for a scuba dive and Dave said he may take us to a dive for a drink or two!!). We also talked in length about the length of our beards - all of us (except Chrissy) are growing beards. Mine and Dave's are growing slowly like fine young oaks, whereas Andrew has ...

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... was so much of interest within the walls; not only the museums, but simply walking the streets could occupy days. For a place so (comparatively) small and with streets all perpendicularly aligned, it was surprisingly easy to get lost. In fact, when we were forced to seek food outside the walls one evening because of the lack of power (roadworks), it came as a bit of a shock to get back to the typical neon, noise and traffic of a chinese town. I felt quite ...