Hui Bin Lou Hotel - Mount Wutai Wutaishan

Wutaishan was one of our greatest disasters to date.Hee and there's been a few. I booked a hostel which gave directions to Wutaishan bus station but was in fact in Nanning- a whole other provence. Oops.<br>Pretty place, once we'd finally checked into somewhere in our price range. It was the coldest place I've ever been. The water in the river had frozen solid! We had pot noodles in bed and tried some rice wine, (evil smelling stuff) and quickly got on a bus out of there! <br>Love Lucy xxx<br>

Den jsme zacali zmenou brlohu, nas domaci byl vydriduch a Adelu budili od 6ti rano auta na "magistrale". Nabidkova cena noveho bydleni byla Y400, po kratsim smlouvani skoncila na prijemnych Y240 za noc.<br><br><br><br>Po ubytovani jsme vyrazili na horskou turu na North Terrace. Po par stech metrech jsem poprve vyzkouseli cinske stopovani a zastavili si nakladacek s delniky a vysvetlili jim (rukama nohama), ze chcem jet s nimi na korbe. Cestou jsme ...

... si nas prehazuji jako horky brambor. Nakonec se rozdelujeme do dvou skupin. Ja s Adelou jdeme do hospody a hlidame krosny vsech. Jenda a Stavi jdou hledat ubytovani i do odlehlejsich mist.<br> Mezi nasi objednavkou si Adela odskoci na toaletu. Ta je vyresena jako cerna dira, kde se..te spolecne se psiky a za ohradkou se.e mistni krava. (stezovat si na zachododiry spolecne sdilene s ostatnimi lidmi byl ...

... un peu les amerindiens aux temps de la conquete, nous aussi on avait un peu la bouche ouverte!<br><br>Et enfin, dans les kiosques ou on vend plens de cossins de touristes, il y avait un kiosque ou ils vendaient des fourrures d'animaux de tailles petites et moyennes. On etait tres perplexes sur la nature de ces dites fourrures. Par des echanges de mimes et de cris d'animaux, le gars nous a explique que c'etait des loups et des renards, mais j'ai jamais vu des renards ou des loups dans ...

... and get serious about religion.<br> <br>4 temples later, a horse ride and Alex climbing the money temple stairs, tiger skins, cat and fox fur on offer in the market, some terrible food and the most beautiful, friendly Monk who invited us to listen to him playing his flute we had had a magicaly experience in WuTaiShan and were seriously comtemplating giving Buddhism a whirl we were ready to leave...<br>

... we went for dinner - the girl we were with was shouting instructions at the poor waitress, no time for pleasantries in this country! We had a huge meal for little or nothing and the food as usual in China was gorgeous. There was no electricity while we were in Pingyao so we didn't get to see the lanterns lit up at night which is beautiful (we seen it on Pete's camera from the night before).

So glad I've got a room today. A couple of days of not having a place to call my own, shower or bed to sleep in for more than 5 hours at a time starts to get you down. The town it self is lovely. It's a UNESCO world heritage site so has avoided development meaning all the original Qing dynasty houses are in tact, together with the city wall. No cars in the town center is also something special. I plan to explore tomorrow and will add more on the place then

... Second, we went back to the hotel that same night in a motor rickshaw which was a hair-raising experience. Not because the driver was particularly bad at his job, but because of the inherent lack of safety of these vehicles (especially on Chinese roads). I have spent today exploring the village of TaiHuai and its surrounding countryside. The village is fairly small, and is completely surrounded by hills (I think the mountains are about ...

... in China Summer Tour 2005 was Datong, aptly translated as "The Big Same." "Why aptly?" you might ask. We might answer: "because Datong looks like all the other million-plus-sized Chinese concrete cities." The city appeared to stretch forever as each turn in the street revealed another long thoroughfare lined with concrete buildings. Throughout the city, old buildings were demolished and new buildings were erected. A dense haze of pollution covered The Big Same as the ...

... the temple up top, enjoyed the view, walked down the steps, checked out tent city (kinds like a souvenir area), had some food, and caught the bus back to Taiyuan. Overall it was a very fun, interesting, entertaining, and educational trip and, because you don't really see it in the everyday life here, mostly I learned how spiritual many Chinese are and a lot about their belief systems. So we had a good time and I got to see another part of China that most foreigners never do.