Yamen Hostel Pingyao

Hi there, We did manage to get out of Datong, although we were a bit worried we would be stuck there for a couple of days as there was no train tickets and no direct buses for saturday. However the helpful man who organised our taxi for the caves got us a ticket for Taiyuan where we headed off to the saturday for a romantic valentines day on buses etc. we managed to navigate our way across taiyuan to another bus station where we got the bus to Pingyao (after a visit the nost dubius toilets ye...

This is the story on how I became the best guesser of names in the world. Back in Datong, I bumped into an English bloke, called Evan, who'd spent more than long enough in Datong to decide that two days was probably the maximum amount of time you should spend in the place (that is, unless you really want to solve the mystery of why it allegedly won a Chinese Tourism Award in 2005). When I told him I'd taken part in the Great Wall of China Marathon, he recalled a guy he'd bumped into earlier i...

If I had thought the journey to Wutai Shan was bad, I would take it in an instant over the nightmare of getting here. You know when the day starts with having to jump a 10ft security fence (with full backpack, of course) to make the bus, it's not going to be a fun day. The 2 hours in an unheated bus, then 4 hours on a different bus with people chain smoking all the while on a journey that was only supposed to take 2.5 hours weren't good, nor was being dropped off 6km from the proper bus stati...

Rady a tipy VLAK * Vlaky jsou čisté, s pouzitelnými tureckými záchody a nekonečným přídělem horké vody. Pro hladové vlakem stále projízdí vozíky s jídlem (to má i nevýhody, zvlásť kdyz stojíte v uličce). Pokud máte sleeper, při nástupu lístek vyměníte za plastikovou kartu. To má tu výhodu, ze ji průvodčí před výstupem bude chtít zpátky a tedy vás před zastávkou řekne (vzbudí vás) - to se hodí, páč jinak můze být vystou...

Wir konnten es dann erstmal ein wenig langsamer angehen lassen, unser Bus Richtung Pingyao startete erst um 10 Uhr. Es war mal wieder extrem heiss in Xi`An, so konnten wir uns auf eine tolle Fahrt in einem stickigen Bus freuen. Wir waren dann auch puenktlich am Busterminal und um 10 Uhr gings los. Der Bus war nicht gerade eine Rakete und so waren wir nach einer halben Stunde erst 5km gefahren, als es Nax wie ein Schlag traf, sie hatte einen ihrer Ringe im Zimmer vergessen. Sie hatte schon vor...

Hi all,

I know you have been concerned but don't worry the temperature here is still in the 30's, so I have not had to wear my coat yet.

What I have been up to since the last blog;

Last Monday we went on the minibus, that the hostel had organised to take us to the Great wall of China. We set off very early in the morning as it was a 3 hour ride to get there. I don't think we were going to make it at all, as the driving was a bit mad. They will drive on the other side of ...

We escaped the Beijing madness to a small and relatively quiet town called Pingyao, west of the Chinese capital. It is an ancient walled city, left as is from several centuries ago (apparently it is the only one in China completely preserved). There are no modern buildings within the walled part, only old Chinese shops and doorways leading into decrepit courtyards. There are a few main streets that intersect each other, where most of the traffic - pedestrians and bicycles as no cars are allow...