Travel Flashback - My Trip to Pingyao As I sit here in my childhood room, watching repeats of
The Amazing Race, part of me is very glad to be home and finally recovering from jet lag and a head cold, but the other part of me wants to be traveling again - but maybe someplace besides China!
Anyhow, thought I would recount my trip to Pingyao a few weeks ago. I went during the first week of August and had been originally hoping to go to Qingdao. Unfortunately, all of the tickets were booked. That ended up being a good thing, because Qingdao was rained out all weekend due to a major typhoon that hit China's east coast. Instead, I decided to grab tickets to Pingyao, a preserved Ming-era city in Shanxi province. The train was about 8 hours from Beijing, but I was nervous off the bat about being able to get tickets home. The always trusty, yet often faulty,
Lonely Planet suggested getting tickets to Taiyuan, the provincial capital, and then buy return tickets to Beijing there, rather than from Pingyao, because there were more train options from Taiyuan. This was actually a good idea, because it also gave me multiple options to get to Pingyao. Thus, I bought hard sleeper tickets to Pingyao and prayed that I'd be able to get back for Monday morning.
I had Chinese class the night my train left, so I rushed home to change out of my suit, grab my pre-packed bags and head back off to Beijing Train Station. I made it to the station with time to spare and boarded my train. It was an older train, but it had a nice sleeper car. I had the middle bunk, which was perfect, since I could see out the window but didn't have to share the bottom bunk with swarms of Chinese travelers. I ended up basically bunkering down and going to straight to bed, since the train arrived in Taiyuan at around 7 am the next morning. I awoke about an hour before we got to the station, and when we got to Taiyuan, I filed out with the rest of the travelers to the main station plaza. Of course, I then went straight to the ticket counter and attempted to purchase sleeper tickets back to Beijing for the following evening. As I entered the ticket hall, I noticed a large electronic sign that listed the availability of tickets back to Beijing and saw that there were none available - for some trains, not even hard seats were available. Great. With memories of Nanjing 1999 in my head, I started surveying various train ticket booths, hotels and travel agencies throughout Taiyuan (a much more working class city than Beijing, btw). Long story short, no train tickets. Yuck. I finally sucked it up and bought a plane ticket home at the China Eastern Airlines office - even though the flight was actually on Hainan Airlines.
Well, I was kind of annoyed at having to spend most of my travel budget on a flight home, but I made my way back to the train station to get a ticket to Pingyao. Unfortunately, since I had taken so long to find a flight home, I missed the first trains down to Pingyao and ended up on a slow local train down there that didn't even leave until noon (it was only 10 am at the time). I wasted time by eating a burger at McDonald's on May 1st Square (exciting...not) and then headed back to the station again! When I got the train boarding area, I realized this would be a crazy train, as I had an unreserved seat and there were masses of people at the boarding gate. As they flung the gates open, I rushed toward to car that seemed most promising, but in the process, my passport fell out of my crappy money belt, so I had to stop and grab it! I made it into a car, full of hard bench seats, open windows and broken fans and forced my way into a seat. I refused to stand 2 hours on a trip to Pingyao! (BTW, my photos show the grandeur that IS hard seat!)
2 hours of spitting, smoking and sweating later, we rolled into Pingyao, after literally sitting on the slowest train in China! When I got to Pingyao, I bought train tickets back to Taiyuan in order to catch my flight home. Little did I know that I could have purchased much later tickets - but more on that below. I jostled through a couple of cab drivers and finally found one who offered me an OK price - still too high I think - and then started my trek into the old city of Pingyao. Throughout the entire day, I had been questioning whether this trip was worth it (esp. with the hassles and the costs). When we drove through the north gate of the preserved city walls and into the old city, I decided it was well worth it. Pingyao was like a set out of a Zhang Yimou period movie. Yes, touristy parts in the center, but like Yangshuo and Lijiang, there were a lot of very untouristed places literally steps away from the main drag (places I was surprised that more people did not visit given the proximity - I guess the language barrier could have been an issue).
My driver took me to the guesthouse in the
Lonely Planet and escorted me inside to make sure I was happy! My guess is that he got some sort of a kickback from the place for bringing foreigners in from the train station. Anyhow, the place was pleasant - an old style Chinese courtyard house. I tried to bargain for a cheaper rate on a single room with bathroom, but didn't get too far when I realized I could save more by getting a room with shared bathroom. That was fine for me and I'd already spent far too much that day on plane tickets so I settled in. I changed out of my dirty clothes, took a shower and then decided to go out and explore the city. Before I left though, I talked to a little Chinese boy who was playing with a kitten. He was fascinated by my digital camera, so I let him look at it a bit and we talked about his kitty. (There is a pic of him on my Pingyao album.) The old city of Pingyao doesn't allow a lof of cars on the roads, so it's mostly pedestrian traffic, bikes and smaller carts and scooters. The main road, Qing Ming Street, had a bit of touristy feel - gussied up with lanterns and a lot of vendors, but still fairly authentic with original buildings all around. It was great to be in a city where the tallest building was the 3 story pagoda in the center of town! I soon learned that all of the major sights in the city were accessible by purchasing a single 90 kuai ticket, which was not bad since it covered over 20 different museums and temples. I first visited an old pawn shop and toured the old offices and residences, including an awesome underground vault meant for holding all of the valuables. It was (and is) protected by a small shrine to Buddha in the vault. I crawled down there without bumping me head, and it was nice and cool - a break from the hot weather. I also visited Rishenchang - China's first bank. This bank grew to nationwide status in the 1800s and would probably still be around today if it weren't for the Japanese invasion and subsequent Communist revolution. A lot of Chinese tourists there and not many English signs, but you got a good idea about how the Chinese came up with their own system of checkable accounts, bonds, loans and other modern banking tools that were also being used in the West at the time.
My exploration also took me to a martial arts museum, which showcases some weapons and profiled some local martial arts masters from over the centuries. Throughout all of this, I had some nice interactions with the locals, who seemed to appreciate a foreigner who could speak Chinese. I also noticed that most off the foreigners in Pingyao were French, which I found very interesting. Don't know why there were so few Americans or Brits. After touring about, I got a little tired of seeing so many tourists so I headed down one of the non-touristed streets and started exploring. Right off the main road, there were many pleasant streets that felt more authentic - still historic but less cleaned up and more "lived in." Got some looks and some smiles and had a few conversations - mostly with kids playing in the street, all of whom knew the word "hello" and some who knew surprisingly more. Got some great pics of street life, esp. some old guys playing chess. I went and checked out the east gate of the wall and walked to to outer part of Pingyao, where the city was more rundown but still fairly traditional. A lot of old men out on the street talking and playing games.
Back in the walled city, I went to a few temples, including a Taoist temple that reminded me a bit of a temple in Beijing, as well as the City God temple. That was interesting since I had studied about city gods when I wrote my thesis at CMC. Near the City God temple, there was a Catholic church! I was surprised and went inside. Despite being a very bad Catholic, I felt compelled to go in and genuflect at the altar and pray for a bit. I'm glad I did because the experience was really neat. There were a number of worshippers there, all Chinese, who seemed to be singing/chanting prayers, but there was no priest at the altar. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be Mass or what, but they kept standing and kneeling, so I followed along. The interior of the church had pictures of Jesus and Mary and some basic Christian art. They finished the "service" and as I walked out, I blessed myself with holy water and was stopped by a Chinese woman. She kept saying "Thank You" in Chinese - I guess she was touched that a foreigner would come and pray at their church. I'm not sure if this was simply Christian/Chinese welcoming or maybe a thanks for support given the sometimes oppresive regime that Chinese Catholics have to live under. Whatever it was, I found it very touching and made sure to leave a little bit of money in the collection box (the only thing in the church labeled in English, btw)!
I had a long dinner at another guesthouse, where I talked a lot to the waitresses there, mainly helping them learn English phrases to help them deal with foreigner customers and also giving advice about how to get more foreigner business (I told them to try and get into the next Lonely Planet)! Then it was back to my hotel for bed - I watched some of
Lord of the Rings - in Chinese! - on state TV.
The next day, I slept in, took a shower and went off for more sightseeing. The major visit for the day was the old Pingyao government headquarters (me and government buildings), which was large and interesting. Perhaps most interesting was a re-enactment of a Chinese court trial in full costume. I liked the end when the convicted criminal was taken off in shackles while telling his wife not to wait for him! I got a few nice shots of the city too, from some higher vantage points in the complex. I also grabbed some good Islamic/Pingyao flatbread on the street for a few mao. Yummy. Also headed down to an old residence that is now a museum. It was pretty but somehow I ended up not taking pictures there - a rare break for Mr. Photo Happy. Before it started to rain, I headed up to the main city wall gate and climbed up to see the city from the wall. It's pretty neat to see a full city wall - it is basically one of the few authentic ones left in China. Even the one I saw in Xi'an seemed too modernized. Climbed up into a watch tower and looked down onto the gate below and pretended that I was some Chinese warrior in the 1400s. Then the rain kicked in and I decided to head back to the hotel. I checked out and got my back and grabbed a bite to eat at a western cafe. The service was really slow and I was worried I'd miss my train but I made it in time and actually found a seat in an air conditioned double decker car. (Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side - this car was TOO cold!) I had a brief discussion with a Chinese man across from me who interrupted my iPod listening. He wanted to practice his English - so we talked in both languages. He was actually working for a German firm and was hoping to go to Germany this year. However, he'd never been farther from Pingyao than Taiyuan, so that would be a big wake-up for him!
In Taiyuan, I grabbed more McDonald's trying to kill time in an A/C location, and then found a cab to the Taiyuan airport for my flight to Beijing. Now, the flight was supposed to leave at 8 pm, so I got to the airport at an early 6 pm. When I walked in, I saw that the sign said delayed until 11pm! YUCK. I tried to get on an earlier flight that was also delayed and scheduled to leave just then, but the airline people claimed it had already left. Well, I settled in for 5 hours in a Chinese airport, which, my friend, is not fun. The airport was new but there are no real services besides really overpriced snack bars that serve unappetizing Chinese snacks and expensive "souvenirs." Again, thank God for the iPod or I would have run screaming out of the terminal about half way in. By the end, I didn't care if I was getting stared at or not (which I was - 2 flight attendants came over and took a picture "with" me - without asking). I stated singing to myself, wandering all around with my roller bag and just generally trying to keep it together. 11 pm comes around and ---- NO PLANE. AUGH! Finally, an announcement comes over saying the flight would leave at 12:30!!! I could have spent another whole day in Pingyao almost!
I overheard some Beijing passengers arguing with the airline staff so I wandered over to listen. From their discussion, I ascertained that the Chinese government's airline policy states that flights delayed over 4 hours are supposed to qualify passengers for a partial refund. The airliner staffer claimed to no nothing about it and I thought that was that. I was shocked when, after boarding the plane, she came on and handed me a 100 kuai note! So glad that I stood there and made my presence known! And it paid for my very late taxi home. Back at the apartment at 2:30 am. I finally hit the sack. Still, I have to admit that it was nice to sleep on my own mattress instead of a hard sleeper cot.
All in all, Pingyao was definitely worth a weekend trip but the travel was almost stressful enough to cancel out the enjoyment I had while there. This was the first time I had ever failed to get sleeper seats in all my time in China - and I chalk it up to the August travel season. Now, I know that I should have tried to find a travel agent in Pingyao to buy me seats before I got there, which I could have picked up upon arrival. We did that in Xi'an - and despite some jitters - it worked out well. Anyhow, that's Pingyao. Oh...if you missed the pics...they are
here. Stay tuned for my travels with Maria to Xi'an and sites in Beijing.