Up early and to the bus (the lady from the hotel took us all the way there and made sure we got on it). After a stop at the bus terminal to buy official tickets and relieve my gut from last nights pork dumplings we were on our way – a 4 hour ride to Taiyuan. The road was extremely bumpy, made worse by the lack of functional shock absorbers, and wound its way down the steep roads out of the Wutai Shan mountains. Our driver did not seem to have any regard for speed cops or his brake pads. The beautiful mountain scenery eventually turned flat and farmed. Passing through towns of varying sizes and degrees of chaos V and I settled into some ‘For good reason’ podcasts.

The bus arrived at a station outside of the city centre and after failing to negociate what we thought would be a fair cab ride to the train station we decided to walk it. The 2km walk in the heat went quickly as we took in the town while occasionally stopping to ask directions and attempting (unsucessfully) to retrieve cash from various ATM’s.

You cannot begin to understand the confusion involved in getting a train ticket in China. In future we’ll happily pay the comm for a hostel to do it for us. We spent half an hour hopping from one que to the next trying to get information with no luck. In the end we decided to pick a que and stick with it until we got to a counter. BTW, my V rocks! While in the que for an hour she was able to decipher the scrolling Chinese characters and extract the relevant information. We ended up with tickets for the next train to Ping Yao – only standing room was available.

The train was again packed and we squeezed into our assigned carriage. The locals happily made a little space for V to sit but one of the conductors was not impressed with how we had stacked our packs – it took much hand waving and shouting to explain that. We were once again the centre of attention. A young chap with a bit of English said hello and politely asked if I was tired – I said ‘No’. That was his que to fetch his friends. What a great bunch of friendly guys. We yakked the whole way and felt like movie stars as we posed for photos with various fans. They told us all kinds of useful bits and if they had not been travelling in a bigger group would have joined and shown us around Pingyao. Apparently the beef in the area is excellent – will have to see.

Our new friends were making absolutely sure that we did not miss our stop. Another lady on the carriage was also getting off there and she wanted to know where we were heading. She phoned ahead and arranged a transfer for us making sure we did not get ripped off. Saying goodbye to the guys on the train she led us to a waiting tak-tak (well an electric one – have to say that over 90% of the bikes we have seen are electric).

Pingyao is a preserved ancient city. No cars are permitted in the central area and our ride took us along the city wall into he heart of it. She led us on foot the last section to the door of the hostel and civilization! A fantastic hostel/guest house (Harmony guest house) with everything a traveller could want including aircon rooms and hot water all day.

We spent some time wandering the quaint streets before grabbing a bite to eat – it really is a special place and deserves its UNESCO World Heritage status.

[Pictures: Crammed train station, the courtyard area at Harmony Hotel]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi