My charger of course fell out of the wall in the night, so my phone died and that meant no wake-up alarm. Fortunately I woke up naturally at 7.57, so we managed to get ourselves out for around half eight or thereabouts. We climbed the Town Tower for 5 kuai and though the views were good we expected even better ones from the city wall, so it was rather disappointing. The stairs were a bit treacherous as well! After the tower, we made our way to the south gate so we could climb the wall. There was an entry but we had no tickets, and they didn't sell tickets there! We asked where they sold them and they pointed out roughly where to go. It was still not immediately obvious, but I spotted a city map on a signboard and we found out that there was a ticket office nearer the north gate. We bought our tickets there that apparently let us in to any number of mystery attractions, including the wall. We got to the wall at the north gate at 9.30am. The guidebook said to walk the circumference takes 2 hours. It took us one hour and 50 minutes, so not far off, and during that time we narcissistically wrote our names in the snow, made snow angels (Liam's first ever!) and imprinted our perfect footprints into the snow, all the while posing for photographs. The making of the snow angels seemed like a good idea but it was rather foolish as it was so stupidly cold. The snow went inside my layers to my skin on my lower back and my bare hands and head and I thought I was going to go into shock or get hypothermia or something! Along the wall we also talked about Liam taking French next year and me choosing to not take a second year out any more, and from that converstaion it looks like I'm not taking another year out after all but going straight back into study at Newcastle, as is the normal sequence. If I need to take time out to practise my languages, I can do that after I graduate I suppose, finances permitting. The views from the wall were not that great - the Town Tower had been better, so I was glad we'd climbed it despite our inital disappointment. The wall had one point of interest; Pingyao is nicknamed the Turtle City because it is said that the wall is shaped like a turtle. The north gate is the head, each side has two gates which are the four legs, the south gate is the head, and two pavilions in front of the south gate are the eyes. Nice idea, but I wouldn't in a million years have called the image of turtle to mind from the form of the walls.
After that, we came down to the old city to eat as we'd missed breakfast. We tried a couple of places, and as ever I have Nolan to thank for imbuing me with the ability to walk out of place that just aren't good enough. One place stank of varnish, to the extent that we could barely breathe, and another had a very uninspiring menu. We ended up giving up all our willpower and went back to our hostel for a fix of Western food. I had lasagne and green tea, and Liam had a Cajun chicken sub and black coffee (his nectar, lol). I was told my lasagne would take half an hour but said I'd wait anyway, and then saw a woman carrying a plate of toast past. There was nothing doing; we had to order ourselves some. And hot chocolate while I was at it. Then apple tart for dessert. A regular feast! You can't possibly understand how much we crave Western food from time to time. So when it's there, it's very hard to fight the urge to eat it, eat it all.
Very full, we made our way to Rishengchang - the first ever bank in China. It was interesting and the English captions were good so even better. The place had been preserved as much as possible so it was less like a museum with exhibits and more like a view of an old-style enterprise.We looked around fairly rapidly and the decided to have a wander in the old streets to see what souvenirs were on offer.
Apparently Pingyao is famous in China for its handmade cloth shoes, and so I found a little shop selling them and bought a pretty black and red pair for 60 kuai. I also could see the manufacture in process which was nice. Next we were wandering along and came across a place which advertised writing your name on a rice grain. Ordinarily Liam and I are both against such useless tat, but I suddenly decided I wanted one and we went in. The shopkeeper was the nicest woman! She sat us in front of the heat lamp to thaw, and showed us all the possible designs of container for the rice grain. I picked a glass turtle with a red flower inside. She wrote my name on one side and Pingyao 2008 on the other, at my request, with a pen! Very skilful indeed.
Once the rice was done we went to the hostel where we'd left our bags for safekeeping, then walked out of the city walls to the new city where we could get a taxi. We hailed one instantly and got to Pingyao train station. It was small and consisted of a single room and toilets. We had time so we went out to find snacks for the journey. I was unsuccessful in finding anything I found edible. It was upon climbing an small icy slope into a supermarket that I had my first fall - I slipped and fell right onto my hands and knees. Tres embarrassing, but no harm done. I could've gone up the steps as well... Still, not as spectacular as Liam's fall in Hohhot. One minutes he was walking along talking to me, and then suddenly he was horizontal on the ground. I will to this day not know how I kept a straight face for so long.
We gave up on finding me a snack and returned to the station. Soon we were on a train to Hebei, and its capital Shijiazhuang. The train was not as bad as the train to Pingyao in terms of crowdedness, at first. We sat on our bags in the hallway but the guard kept moving us on because we were right by the entrance doors of the carriage. Just around the corner we found another spot which seemed like a bit of good luck until everyone around us started smoking. It smelt disgusting of course, as cigarettes and their smokers are wont to do. My eyes and windpipe instantly started to hurt and I got pretty annoyed. Liam pointed out that we were in the smoking bit of the carriage, which was true, but having said that, there wasn't really anywhere else to go and so the smokers could perhaps be a little more respectful in not blowing smoke directly into my eyes. I just couldn't stand it any more, and so I removed myself from the inconsiderate fug and forced my way through into the compartment. After standing a while with my huge rucksack clearly in everyone's way, I noticed that the seat behind me was a three person seat and only two people were on it. I asked to sit down and the man said that the standing man next to me was the true owner of the seat, but that kind man told me to sit, and helped me slot my bag under the seat. This is when Liam came through. He was forced to stand and a bit later so was I when the owner of the seat wanted his place back. Suddenly the man behind me invited me to sit, and so I gratefully once again sank into a seat. I have to say one thing for the Chinese; they are much more generous than the British. You wouldn't catch an Englishman giving up his precious seat to a tourist!
I had been paranoid about my rice grain breaking at the start of the journey and because earlier I'd been sitting atop my bag, I moved the grain to the side pocket. When my bag was under the seat the box must have fallen out because when I checked the pocket the grain was gone. I found the lid of the box, all forlorn and alone on the mucky floor, but nothing else. The other passengers nicely helped me look for it, but it was gone. I was a bit upset at so quickly losing such a unique souvenir, but nothing I could do. I was from then on on the lookout for a new rice grain!
The quaint traditional-style rooftops of Old Pingyao.
The old wall of Pingyao and the moat, stretching off into the distance.
SNOW ANGEL!!!
The West Counter room and models at the Rishengchang Draft Bank
Shoeses in Pingyao.
More was to come. We reached Hebei at night and briefly queued for our tickets until realising we were at the wrong station for tickets to Beijing. We got a taxi and got 7am tickets to the country's capital. It was already late and we were heading for no more than a few hours' sleep at this rate so we went to the U Hotel right across from the station. The woman behind the desk was not exactly the epitome of efficacious and it took a fair while to get to our room. When we did we found that there were no lights except in the bathroom! We wasted precious sleeping time considering whether to switch rooms or not, looking for a staff member on the 10th floor, and trying to get any of the many lights to work, but finally we just decided to lump it. We unpacked our necessities in the bathroom and changed there too, set our alarms for stupid o'clock and went to bed. My alarm informed me I had 5 hours 33 minutes to sleep.
Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan were our first two destinations where we did no sightseeing or any kind of discovery at all. Before you judge us, remember that our aim was to visit every province and every capital thereof. Some province capitals are pure dumps. Shijiazhuang is one of them. But we're both too obsessive to miss anywhere out!
What our hotel room apparently looked like [with flash].
...and what we could actually see.
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