Ruilong International Hotel Xinzhou

... to find out what monstrous job could need all those shovels - even going as far as walking in line with them for several blocks, subjecting myself to their stares and more giggles - but the conversation goes no further. I've exhausted their English.

It's cold here, everywhere. The old buildings lack any sort of insulation, and to their credit the Chinese like to conserve heat, so indoors is hardly warmer than out. I hadn't showered in three days because of the cold, so I ...

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.
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!
Love Lucy xxx

... curry, fried rice and dumplings. Not really a fan of the dumplings. Very Gooey! The next day I took a walk about and got extremely lost. Luckily for me I was completely walled in and there was only so far I could go wrong! I should really have sat nav installed on my ...

... we slept in our bus, going nowhere!

His alarm went off around six in the morning and he roused a few others from their sleep! Simultaneously, a row of taxis joined the bus. One by one the taxi drivers hopped out! (Oh God! What's going on here??) They each took a bag from the bus and once again disappeared. Some of the helpers jumped into a passing white van. And a strange old man passed the bus, nonchalant, but walkin backwards up the road. We shrugged off ...

... lowered the price to 5 per, still outrageous, but we had no proof that it should've been cheaper, as it wasn't listed in the menu, so we paid and biked our frustrations away.

When we arrived in Taiyuan, we got dinner at a place that gave free rice with every meal, so I guess that ended up making up for it, anyway.

This trip was great. Nearby, so not a ridiculous amount of traveling for just a week's time, and nothing we saw or visited was really a dud ...

... the real treat of the trip. They were built as hiding places for soldiers, and it's said that about 10km of tunnel existed, though only 1.5km of it is currently walkable. Going down into them is nice because they don't feel all done up in a touristy fashion--I actually wondered of their security--and it's neat to see the way they communicated and lived, and ambushed and trapped their enemies. The Japanese destroyed the main entrance in 1942 in ...

... a taxi. When I returnt from the streets, I met Viki, a Chinese English guide, who spend the night in my room. She told me the hostel organizes tours there, we went together to speak with them(the reception doesn't speak English) - they have a group for tomorow! What a wonderful world!

4/10 - Pingyao: Wang Family Courtyard
Well, the tour was "only" to Wang Family Courtyard, although Zhangbi is nearby.
The place we visited is a ...

Pingyao was once the richest city in China, being the banking center to the empire. It fell into obscurity for about 100 years, but now is a major tourist attraction. One of the biggest attractions in Pingyao was US! It turns out we hit the town ast the same time as an international photography exibition and the town was jammed with Chinese photographers ...

... stairs, of which there are over 1500 steps (imagine taking the stairs from the first floor of a building to the 75th floor!) and at an almost 75 degree angle, but that's not the crazy part! The crazy part is that the hard-core followers of Buddhism must stop on every third step, and not just kneel down but lie down on the steps and offer a prayer! Do the math and you can see how many prayers that is and maybe you can imagine just how long it takes to get to the top. And ...

... bell from the Ming dynasty. Mostly I wandered around by myself while the girls stopped at EVERY SINGLE Buddha to pray and took some photos and read a bit about the history. We then climbed a small stairway which took us to a small golden temple (actually made of bronze) which had many remarkable statues and Buddhist vestiges. That evening we just had dinner and walked around the peaceful little village and enjoyed the nice weather and night markets.