Traveling

Pingyao stories

Where do I start?
Headed to Pingyao with Kathrin, Charles and Fabienne. We took the over nite train, and arrived at 5:21am (precisley- the trains are ON TIME). Dropped our luggage off and headed out site seeing (before the sun was up) and saw the most amazing things. The little market things were opening up, old men were doing kungfu type moves in front of their shops, ladies were sweeping in front of their homes, a donkey was parked on a corner... I'm starting to like mornings more and more. Pingyao is a small city (you can walk around the perimeter in about 2 hrs) so it is just made up of these little cobble stone/ dirt streets.

We headed out of the city walls, and off to Shuanglin Si, a temple 6 km outside of town. It wasnt the best walk but I did have a nice chat with Charles. Fabienne and Kathrin were the speed walkers- i have become quite the stroller, let me tell you.
The temple was very interesting- a bunch of sculpture students were working there so it was great to see their reproductions too.

Took a rickshaw motor bike thing back into town. We packed 9 people on where 6 would've been slightly cramped back home. We thought that since there were more people it would be cheaper than the original price we had haggled but it was the same- AND he wanted to charge us MORE (the other 4 were chinese girls) when the others were going further than we were! Wow that did not go over well. And on top of everything, he let us off at the bus station, where people hang out with nothing to do, so within 10 seconds we had about 8 men circled around us listening to what was going on. Finally the girls just decided to split the fare with us and we all paid the same. The driver didnt budge. (Strangely, we saw him later in the day and he waved at us and yelled Hello! I'm just never gonna understand).

K & C went off to see some courtyards some place and F and I just hung around Pingyao checking out the markets (I want a little red book) and walking the streets.
We ended up sitting on a porch type thing to relax and enjoy the people walking by, and it turned out to belong to a woman who was home. She put her cats out for us to play with. Then came to fill our water bottles. Then sat with us for a bit. Then she brought us some cookies she had made. And a bible. Then an apple each. Her friends also came over to chat. they were amazed at Fabienne's nose ring. They asked how she could blow her nose- only ppl here don't use kleenex they just block one nostril and blow- so it was quite funny to explain that we use kleenex and its fine. That was a big laugh. Kleenex! It was a great afternoon. we shared our tomatoes, and almonds, and when some kids came around we broke out the M&Ms. (You can see Pingua's photo -and others- on my yahoo site)

We were supposed to meet K and C to walk the wall at 3pm but they didn't show so we decided to go alone. Another story:
We went to an entrance to get up the wall. (This wall is one of the only complete ones left, so it would have been interesting to actually get up there. ) The woman said we couldn't get in and pointed in a direction. We followed her suggestion thru back alleys, mud pits, garbage, you name it, but didn't find what she sent us for. Asked a man and he also pointed us in some direction, I don't think anyone really knows where anything is ever. Instead of saying 'Don't know' or 'Sorry' they point 'Over there'. Anyways, after F tried to climb the wall (she pretty much did it) we got to another entrance. No go. Finally ppl on the wall yelled down to us 'Hello!' (it goes on everywhere) and we asked where they got on. Finally: the ticket booth.
"there is no ticket to get on to the wall"
"but there are ppl up there"
"yes, you buy a ticket for 120 that is good for all the museums in pingyao and entrance to the wall"
"but we have been here for 3 days and seen all the museums- we just want to get on the wall" (yes we lie sometimes)
"sorry you can not"
"but we will pay you, you don't want the money? 20?"
"no you can not"
So we left there very frustrated. But still determined. Went to the actual entrance where ppl with tickets got in. F offered him 15, then 20 RMB but he really didn't like that.
Finally some guy approached us and says if we pay him 30RMB he will take us up the wall in his rickshaw. What the hell right? It has already been almost 2 hrs we've been trying... So we get in and he takes us in the opposite direction- away from the wall. So I ask him where and he just points 'Over there' so we laugh, take photos and enjoy the ride thru the city- away from the wall.
Finally he brings us up this little alley (I don't think we could be any more IN THE MIDDLE of the city) and he points to this museum house... we tried to find the wall to point to but it wasnt even in sight! Anyhow, this old woman comes out and shows us a photo of stairs and points 'Over there'. Like, we can walk up her stairs and get to the top of a wall or something. So we started to walk away saying we dont want. He followed us for a bit, but I think we all knew this was completely ridiculous, including himself. Oh, and we didn't pay. Just for the record.

posted by jjoollee @ 12:51 AM