Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Jacob and I had the absolute pleasure of staying in Pingyao last night and today. It’s a small town about halfway between Beijing and Xi’an that is stuck in the late eighteenth early nineteenth century. Pingyao was one of the first banking centres in China and so had city walls to protect the small space. During the twentiesth century the banking centres moved to Shanghai and Hong Kong and so the city just became stuck with no upgrades being done to the buildings. Obviously they’ve been fitted with electricy, running water and thankfully the internet but other than that the city remains much the same as it was hundreds of years ago.

The adventure of Pingyao began during our train ride here. We had originally been hoping to do an overnight train from Beijing to Pingyao but that didn’t work out for us, and it turns out we were lukcy it didn’t. We spent the first half of the journey on one of China’s more luxurious trains and were more than pleasantly surprised. I sat beside a lovely couple who spoke a little bit of English. They were really friendly and concerned about our onward travel. We also had the opportunity to listen to one of our fellow passengers sing along to all of the songs being played as background music on the train.

Our next train ride wasn’t quite as fancy. We bought our tickets at the train station in Taiyuan and then boarded the train as standing room only. We boarded this pre-war era train that definitely reminded us that we were in a communist country. As the only white people onboard, we were the source of much curiousity. Despite the sub par conditions of the train we met some of the nicest people we have encountered yet. I was almost immediately offered a seat by a really friendly girl who spoke a bit of English. She instead stood out with all of the men smoking in the doorway. The other woman on our bench eventually moved over and the three of us squeezed in together much to the amusement of all of the surrounding passengers. The girl acted as a translator and the other passengers, one man in particular, shouted out questions for her to ask us. Jacob and I were the centre of attention for a solid twenty minutes as everyone listened in to hear the question and answer period. I’m fairly certain this will be one of my favourite experiences in China.

We spent last night relaxing in the bar of our hostel. We enjoyed some really great food and our first coffee of the trip. Delish. Today we rented bicycles again, and rode through the many alleys of the walled city. The alleys are only wide enough for a couple of bicycles. As you wind through the city you are constantly surrounded by brick. Some walls and houses are built with beautiful brick work and others seem to be defying gravity held together with straw and mud. Every once in a while you can catch a glimpse inside the courtyard of someone’s house. They often have laundry hanging out in the breeze with greenery around the exterior. Usually the houses are two storeys and there’s a rod iron balcony. The people seem to be just as old fashioned as the city. Most of them are just sitting around enjoying each other’s company and the day. There are dogs wandering around the city that seem healthy and happy enough. The old men gather to play some sort of board or card game and the old women tend to something in the courtyard.

Understandably Pingyao is a tourist destination and so the main streets are littered with stalls selling everything from cheap children’s toys to beautiful hand crafted carvings and metal pieces. We did our first bit of shopping and picked up some souvenirs for ourselves and to display at home. Unfortunately we’re leaving Pingyao tonight at midnight to try our first overnight train journey in China. Before our train leaves the station we plan to try our luck at a traditional Chinese foot massage. Fingers (and toes) crossed that it’s not as painful as it looked on the Amazing Race.