Hong Hu Hotel Pingyao

... br>But we landed on our feet, checking into the nearest fancy hotel which happened to only be a fiver a night anyway! Thank God! Nice to be in a hotel for a change! <br>Have just arrived in Beijing! Took an 8 hour bus from Wutaishan. Painless enough bar the wierd ...

... a couple of beers. The place is slightly ruined in my memory though because on the last day we ate there I found a caterpillar in my noodles :-( I thought it was a bit of iceberg lettuce and almost popped it in! Not nice. The Great Wall was amazing. An 8km walk along a lesser known section. Spectacular views but quite scary at times. We had to climb up some very steep sections with no special equipment and there were some big drops ...

... guesthouse. Liliana lost her husband a year ago and she has recently re-invented her self careerwise. I was inspired by her story of how she wanted to create her own career that would allow her the time and opportunity to travel. She has also adopted a Buddhist way of life and so clearly understood where I was in my life right now. Liliana is a beautiful, fiery, and confident woman and I found it a true gift to have met her at this point ...

... eh schon einen horrenden Preis hatte und ich die Mauer nur 10 Minuten verlassen hatte, kam bei mir eine gewisse Wut auf. Da ich normalerweise nicht so schnell wuetend werde, konnte wohl auch der Polizist der nur einen Satz Englisch sprach "You climbed wall" sehen, dass der Vulkan kurz vor dem Ausbruch steht und so konnte ich, oh Wunder, letztendlich doch passieren. Als Nax es mit dem Ticket spaeter an einem anderen Eingang auch nochmal versuchte, musste sie in anbetracht ...

... bus station where we got the bus to Pingyao (after a visit the nost dubius toilets yet, think peeing in a trough with no cubicle doors...) We arrived in Pingyao about 4 o clock, it is beautiful. Such a polar opposite to Datong which was horrific. Also, big yes to the youth hostel, theres free internet, free pool table and beautiful courtyards and food and hot chocolate, see pics. Apparently it used ...

... felt like it was free so I decided to spend some time walking around the Theatre Grounds. For those that make the same mistake, next time open your eyes and look where you are going. The sign in front of you at the ticket office that it is the Theatre Hall! Also for those that find themselves in the Theatre Hall grounds you can actually enter the Confusions Temple from there. I don't know ...

... this would be the last chance one of these tops would ever be shown on tv, whereas Lorna just kept saying "How does my hair look?" and "Make sure they get my best side" - Backside would be more accurate! Anyway, after our energetic morning we grabbed some lunch at the Sukara Café and it was that nice that we arranged the rest of the group to come there in the evening as well. They have another one of these places in Beijing and one ...

... main charm of the place. There's an abundance of narrow streets, solely trafficked by electrical golfcarts and bicycles. There's more temples, houses, courtyards and mini-museums than you can shake your hat at. I have to admit though, that the comfort of the youth hostel I stayed in, and the fact that this trip is drawing to a close, has introduced an element of lethargy, so I didn't get up to much. I seem to be jojo-ing between youth hostels in one ...

... they haven't caught on to tourism. At all times of the day, large masses of Chinese tour groups wander around, interspersed with the odd Westerner. The big streets are lined with people selling all sorts of old souvenirs on tables, shops from which the merchants yell at you "Hello! Please come inside and look", and guesthouse restaurants that look like they were all made from the same template. The town is best enjoyed at night ...

... buildings in various states of disrepair, its all still in use though so at least it wasnt just a big museum!! On our way back from the lama's :) we walked down through the Hutong streets. These are really the old parts of Beijing. They are all single storey houses and shops. Many of these streets are being bulldozed for Beijing's "Hyper Modernization" as the locals call it. The ones we walked through have been set aside as a special area and ...