Yingze Hotel Taiyuan

... 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 ...

... br>Taiyuan mel byt pro nas jen prestupni stanice, ale nakonec jsme v nem stravili cele odpoledne. Taiyaun je vice nezmilionove mesto, prestavbu centra dokoncili pred 2 roky. Hlavni ulice je misty az dvanacti proudova dalnice. Nikde tu nikdy nedelaji nic maleho. Asi sem nejezdi moc turistu. Vsude na nas zirali a v obchodech se nas ani nesnazili moc natahnout, takze jsme tam vubec nesmlouvali. Zasli jsme na jidlo, do muzea umeni provnicie Shanxi a posedeli v mistnim parku.

... all these problems. Through internet, Native Chinese teachers can offer professional Chinese for Children and propose useful advice on how to learn Chinese. What's more, online learning also offers convenience and flexibility.

... to the water, which is the first time I have seen that. You can wash your hands in the water, which is supposed to be from the mountains and very clean. It has sacred powers. It was really funny how many people stared at us. Lots of people wanted pictures with Matt and I. I'm not really sure why they wanted them, but we would catch people taking sneak pictures of us or they would just ask us outright

After the temple we went ...

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 come to her house for dinner. We said yes and she wrote the place to meet in chinese. At 7pm we hopped in a cab then waited at the place until she arrived. She said that she had gotten a call to go back to the gorge after she left us and it was raining with no visibility. She made us a dinner which was fun to share in her small place. I'll blog more about this later. For now it is time to catch a flight.

... Jenze jsme nemeli paru, kde stavi, tak sla pani s nama a zkousela nas ukecat. Coz mimo jine privedlo mou mysl k zubum. Nevim, jestli v tehle provincii jsou zubari tak drazi, nebo jestli tu na zubni peci kaslou, ale v zivote jsem nevidela tolik zkazenych zubu jako tady. Nakonec bus prijel, zastavil na krizovatce a zacal vykrikovat jmeno mesta, kam jsme chteli, tak jsme nasedli a jeli. Do Pingyao je to cca 40 kilasku, pohodicka, pekny vyhled na venkovske vesnice a tak.

... around the city. It costs 40Y to get up and if you're willing to pay a little extra you can rent bikes (either single or tandum) to ride around the walls. From what people say here at the hostel, the bikes are good fun, though maybe a little bumpy, and let you ride around the entire wall. We decided to walk instead, snapping photographs. We probably only covered about 1/4 of the wall's length, but the bit we did stroll ...

... after catching the train here(11 hours) and tonight i am off to Xi`an where the terracotta warriors are. Turns out a great time to travel as it is the chinese holidays and all tickets and places are booked so i might have to do a plan D,E,F,G. But as always i will keep you all posted. Have fun and don`t work too hard!! Benjamin Ps Remember to right in me guestbook on the travelpod website would be lovely to know of all your thoughts and wellwishing messages.

Taiyuan is I think the only place I have visited so far which I wouldn't choose to visit again. The main street is developed and has a cosmopolitan feel about it, but as soon as you stray off it, things deteriorate. Overall the city has no character, and there's little to see. The exception is a twin pagoda temple, which I half-climbed on my first full day there (ie, I climbed one of them). A visit to the only other temple ...