World Trade Taiyuan

June 12th- We got up early Friday morning to do some work before our flight to Taiyuan. After lunch we took a cab to the airport where we got our tickets and boarded China Eastern Airlines. It is a great airline, riding the plane here is extremely convenient and well-organized. I had my doubts, but this was one of the better flying experiences I've had. Our flight was only an hour or so and we got a nice little ham and cheese sandwich ...

We get dropped off at the Qingxu service station at 2:30am. There's a 24hr convenient store, we find a row of plastic seats and tries to make it until the sun comes up. We have been on the road nonstop for 18 hours, have to wait 7 more hours before we can find a bed.

... we would show us one. We told her we'd like to buy her lunch and she said ok. It was nice to have her along as she explained about the area specialty Chongdong fish. Unfortunately it cost 240 yuan so we got a different fish but cooked the same way for 40 yuan. You ask what kind of fish for 240? Catfish. Keep in mind the exchange rate is about 6.5 yuan to $1.00 After a good and not expensive lunch Lucy asked ...

... chram (jedina vyjimka, studentske vstupne za 2 yuany), kde se mimo jine nachazi provincialni muzeum. Chram pekny, muzeum nic moc. Pak jsme vyrazili na autobusove nadrazi koupit listek, tam nam pratelsky sdelili, ze listek si muzeme koupit az v den odjezdu. Famy o tom, ze cestovani autobusem je levnejsi nez vlaky, jsou skutecne jenom famy. A studentske listky taky nemaji. Druhy den jsme se sbalili a s pevnym rozhodnutim se do Taiyuanu nikdy nevratit (haha) jsme ...

... also serves as a panda breeding center, which is extraordinary considering the dwindling panda population in the wild. With other animals (for they also had golden monkeys, snow leopards, ibises, black bears and a bunch of others), the center often keeps them for a couple of years, studies them and then releases them back into the wild. Being winter when we went, the park was basically disserted. But since it was cooler ...

... washing in. The Terracotta Army is a must and well worth the bus trip out of Xian. If you go start with the 15 minute cinema show next to pit 1, as it sets the scene, then do the 3 pits in numerical order, the official guide route does the cinema at the end. You will need about 4 hours to do it all without rushing. The backpackers hostel by the southgate was well worth going to for the interweb ...

... someone elses bottom bunk like the locals : o ) Mac loved the sleeper train, especially as he had cafined himself to death in Starbucks before he left.... international relationships may take some time to mend. The toilets are fab, you can ligitimately pee everywhere. Mac wished he had learned to read so he could have read a book... never mind, more beer next tim

... English and told us the only train that day had no sleeper only hard seats and there was no way I was doing an over night on a hard seat..... so we booked for the following day..... the funny thing was and the reason it took a while is that every time I asked her a question looking for a positive of negative response she would say "yes no" it was a little funny. We decided as we had a day to spare we would go to Pinyao ...

... as long as he knew which way to go, I was happy. The vans stopped in the middle of the road about ten minutes from the village. There was no sign of anything as we piled out into the fresh mountain air (definitely a nice change from Beijing). No path, no people, and no Wall visible. We all strapped on our gear, and followed our guide north onto what appeared to be an animal trail. I was near the front of the line as we strolled up into the mountains past ...

... well! So here we are taking photos with this newly wedded couple like we're all old friends! Then the father comes back again with some more rice wine and gives a few toasts and more pictures. We finish our meal and as we try to leave, he comes back again and gathers the whole group outside for a few last pics before we leave. It must be like a status thing to have foreigners in your pictures because practically everywhere we go it's the same thing