Having left Beijing late in the afternoon due to delays, we drove late to reach our nights destination. It was just that…a destination and a bed for the night…so noodles were dinner as we stopped at the service centre. The next morning we journeyed on to Pingyao which we reached by about 1pm. It is a preserved old town and the structures and alleyways are preserved to look as they did hundreds of years ago. A gorgeous walled city.
We checked into our accommodation which was typical of years gone by… a guest house with a central courtyard and rooms off this. We knew we had to buy a ticket that would allow us to climb the city walls and enjoy visiting the temples etc. When we went to do this with our passports we found that it was free because we were over 60! This is one situation when we felt we should have paid as the money goes back to the town to help retain its history.
A coffee and sandwich at Shrew’s coffee shop was entertaining and a ceramic wall of nine dragons was photographic.
Exploring the Confucius temple, the old homes, the Taoist temple, the oldest bank in China and climbing the wall kept us busy until it was time for dinner.
Earlier we had seen the local noodles being made so we went back there for dinner. Ordering off the pictures on the menu is fun and our meal was wonderful…added to by some local beer. Yes…you hear me correctly…beer!
The posing for photos is something we have watched the Chinese do over and over again and even the small children are learning that when the camera is pointed you take up a pose such as this. We thought this old doorway would be a good place for a pose!
Internet was intermittent so today I write for 2 days. (couldn’t publish this last night but at 5.30 am the internet is not in high demand so here goes. We headed off this morning with a walk through the alleyways of Pingyao. A visit to a Buddhist temple
about 20 mins away and then we got on the road for Xian where we will visit the Terracotta warriors.
Silk Road by MG 
Leave a Reply