Cuichenghai Hotel Pingyao

... this first hand look at Chinese winter has been an experience in itself. The white blanket has made for some beautiful photos in the ancient temples, as the colourful adornments and intricate carvings pop out against the gray and white of the surroundings. Watching people deal with the weather has been unique as well. There are no snowploughs in these parts, so removal within the walled city is all done entirely by shovel. The noise of metal shovels scraping the ancient stone of the ...

... at all. Though about 700 or so years old, it is less than five years old as a tourist attraction. Therefore, it doesn't see many visitors, and the price per person, including a (kinda) English-speaking guide was only 47RMB (40 for entry, 20 for the guide no matter how many people). The town itself is interesting enough (and the locals haven't had enough time to become disenfranchised with a steady flow of tourists), but the underground tunnels ...

... narow and very steep. Back on the bike we reached the train station and decided to carry on out of town towards a Buddist temple that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet. As I had left the aforementioned book in the hostel as a weight saving measure I was sure I'd read it was 1.7kms. 4 kms later down the road I wasn't so sure anymore and we were headind out into a whole lot of nothing so decided to cut our losses and turn back - we were ...

... or walk. Not wanting to look like wimps we opted for the walk...... big mistake. Oh how we wished we did the cars. Heavy breathing, sweat dripping off our foreheads and that was only at the bottom.<br><br>Once we were on the wall though it was amazing to see. We had a 8km walk (5 miles) to where we would then be picked up. We had 4 hours to do it in, so even though I didn't have my calculator, even I could work out that it was 2km/hour. (It took a while ...

... Vanaf Taiyuan Airport hebben we een bus genomen naar de Taiyuan station. Na lang wachten bracht de bus ons in ruim een half uur door het drukke en chaotische verkeer naar het treinstation. (waarom toeteren die mensen hier allemaal aldoor? Volgens mij heeft het dan echt helemaal geen zin meer... tuuttuuttuuttuut). Aangekomen op het treinstation van Taiyuan weet je niet wat je ziet... overal, maar dan ook echt overal wachtende menigte, zittend op rijstzakken, andere ...

... Temple was called the Zhongdu Temple but it was renamed Shuanglin during the Song Dynasty (960-1127). In Chinese, Shuang means two or double, and Lin, forest. The temple got its name from a Buddhist story. According to the Buddhist sutra, Sakyamuni who was the founder of Buddhism, entered nirvana under two trees; Hence, its name Shuanglin. Reconstructed in 571, the Shuanglin Temple has a ...

... I am here now! Beers N Noodles toya.....shane _______________________________________ __________________ The soundtrack to this entry was by The Smashing Pumpkins The album was their greatest release ever, 'Gish' _______________________________________ ___________________ Pingyao: The Old City is small enough that you can do most locations by foot. But if you need to ...

... luggage on to the train along with everyone else shoving their way on. Then it was into my tiny room on my tiny bed in a room with 3 other people. One man on the top bunk was a musician because he kept sounding off with his flatulence. Earlier in the day there were some people expulsing gasses too and just like then, nobody in my ...

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... and the requisite shops and vendors selling all manner of trinkets pingyao is very beautiful, in a slightly grey and dusty kind of way. and the chinese tourists are all in tour groups (finding independent chinese travelers is a rarity) and they only stick to the main drag, following the tour leader's flag and sometimes all wearing the same hat or vest (or both). pingyao's big enough that i could go exploring the back streets and alleyways in relative tranquility. i was happy ...