Taiyuan and Pingyao

  Pingyao, Shanxi, China
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The train arrived this morning in Taiyuan at 7AM.  My tour guide was waiting for me as I walked off the train.

Taiyuan

Taiyuan 1

Taiyuan 2

Our first sto was for breakfast.  Now that I was in a smaller city and less touristy spot, I have begun to discover that I will have to adapt a bit more.  For example there are no toilets here but rather pits in the floor; even at the nice hotels.  Next, the food is more difficult too.  I don't always know what I am eating but I choose what looks like it may be acceptable to my stomach.

The first site we visited was Jin Ci Temple.  Jinci Temple is world-famous because it is an ancient ancestral temple, something which is rare in China.  Jinci Temple has a long history, which can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC to 711 BC), when King Cheng made his younger brother Yu a leader of one of his states. Yu was an intelligent leader who devoted all his energies to making the state prosperous, so his descendants built a temple for him after his death, in order to honor his achievement.  Jinci Temple was, to a certain extent, an imperial garden. Accordingly, some three hundred tablets were inscribed for it with writings by emperors, officials and poets, and these now line a scenic path in the temple. The most famous stele was written by the Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty in 646, and it was kept in a pavilion which is now known as 'Zhen Guan Bao Han Pavilion'. Taizong was one of the great emperors of Chinese history. The time from which he inherited the throne from his father became known as the Prosperity of Zhenguan, and people referred to the calligraphy written by him as ' Bao Han', meaing a kind of treasure.

Jin Ci Temple 5

Next we went to Qiao Jia Dayuan which was an old business center over 300 years ago.  This whole area really felt like nothing had changed and I was walking back in time.

posing by Qiao Jia Dayuan 1

Qiao Jia Dayuan

Qiao Jia Dayuan 3

Qiao Jia Dayuan 5

Qiao Jia Dayuan 6

Qiao Jia Dayuan 9

at Jin Ci Temple

at Jin Ci Temple 2

at Jin Ci Temple 7

at Jin Ci Temple 9

at Jin Ci Temple, Taiyuan 2

at Jin Ci Temple, Taiyuan 6

at Jin Ci Temple, Taiyuan 92

at Jin Ci Temple, Taiyuan 94

at Jin Ci Temple, Taiyuan 98

Jin Ci Temple 3

Jin Ci Temple

Jin Ci Temple 2

From Taiyuan, we drove to the city of Pingyao which is known as being a very ancient city.  The first stop here was the Shuanglin Temple.  It was a series of Buddha temples built in the Ming Dynasty.  One impressive room had a large Buddha surrounded by 1,000 carved Buddhas.

Shuanglin Temple 2

Shuanglin Temple 3

Shuanglin Temple 4

Shuanglin Temple 5

Shuanglin Temple 8

Then we drove into the ancient city of Pingyao which is still surrounded by an ancient city wall.  Once inside we climbed to the top of the north tower for a view of the entire city and the city wall.

posing on Pingyao's city wall

posing on Pingyao's city wall 1

Pingyao's city wall

Pingyao's city wall 1

Pingyao's city wall 2

Pingyao's city wall 6

Pingyao's city wall 7

Next we visited Rishengchang Bank.  It was established in 1823 as China's first private bank. It was the biggest draft bank at that time and had been famous for "Hui Tong Tian Xia"(Business Connecting The Whole World).

Rishengchang Bank 6

Rishengchang Bank 7

Finally we made it to the hotel.  At 8PM I had dinner with my guide at the hotel.

Pingyao 2

martial arts training

martial arts training 1

martial arts training 3

Started touring this morning at 9AM in Pingyao.  The hotel is located next to a majestic tower.

Pingyao, China

Pingyao, China 1

Pingyao, China 3

Pingyao, China 4

Pingyao, China 5

Pingyao, China 6

Pingyao in China 2

Pingyao in China 3

The Olympic torch is going to pass through the city at 3PM so I am hoping to get a view of this.  Everyone is excited about this and people are selling flags and shirts and I have seen many of the people who will be running with the torch.

This morning I visited one of the other banks built in Pingyao in this formerly very important mercantile community.  At this bank they stored a great deal of silver and gold.

ancient Pingyao mercantile area 1

ancient Pingyao mercantile area 2

ancient Pingyao mercantile area 7

At 12:30PM I went for lunch and of course I had...NOODLES!  In Pingyao for breakfast, lunch and dinner it is a bowl full of noodles drowing in vinegar.

Pingyao in China 4

Pingyao in China 5

Pingyao in China 1

At 2:30PM I went to the south gate of the old city wall to watch the Olympic torch relay.  I feel very fortunate to just happen to coincidently be in the exact city on the exact day that the rare occasion of the torch relay being passed for the Olympics.  I waited and waited and more and more people gathered.  In typical fashion in this country people just pushed and cut with no regard for anyone else.  It is as natural here as breathing.  As rude and disrespectful as I feel it is, the difference is that in America they form lines and are orderly but when someone does push or cut then a fight ensues whereas here they do it and nobody blinks.  So after waiting patiently for almost an hour a mother shoves her child into me repeatedly only she finally squeezed him and herself past me despite that fact that I had been waiting.  I don't know how she did this since I was in the front with only a gate in front of me and a row of 50 policemen, but she figured out how to beat me.  

I soon learned that I would not actually see the torch relay, but rather that the south gate was the final point of the passing and running of the torch.  It was still exciting to be a part of it and I saw all of the torch carriers as they came down the steps of the gate.  

Olympic torch ceremony in Pingyao

Olympic torch ceremony in Pingyao 1

Olympic torch ceremony in Pingyao 2

Olympic torch ceremony in Pingyao 3

Olympic torch in Pingyao

Olympic torch in Pingyao 4

Olympic torch in Pingyao 90

Olympic torch in Pingyao 92

I tried to blend in the crowd and get in the spirit by wearing my newly purchased Olympic shirt, and I attached to my sunglasses a small Olympic flag and a small Chinese flag.  When the torch ceremony was over I made a slow walk back to my hotel.  It was a fun atmosphere with so many people on the streets and passing so many shops.  Now that the torch ceremony was over I became the center of attention.  Flashes went off left and right as everyone seemed to be taking pictures of me.  People would say hello (their only english word) and some told me that I was "cool".  Wow, I was the Chinese Fonz!  

At 8:30Pm I left on my overnight train to Xian.  I will be happy if I never board another overnight train. Once again I had to push and pull to get my heavy luggage on to the train along with everyone else shoving their way on.  Then it was into my tiny room on my tiny bed in a room with 3 other people.  One man on the top bunk was a musician because he kept sounding off with his flatulence.  Earlier in the day there were some people expulsing gasses too and just like then, nobody in my room seemed to bat an eye despite how loud and smelly he was.  It just seems to be normal here to be flatulent.  At home I would be kicked out of the house!  

I attempted to go to sleep but I never came close as the sound of the train as it blew its whistle at each stop and the sound of the flatulent man never permitted me to drift off.