24.08.09
I really have nothing to do today, I've seen the sights and walked around the walls, been outside the city gates and explored and now am just killing time until my train leaves at 11pm. The only option is to sit back outside the hostel and attempt to learn some more Chinese with my Mandarin recordings and bask in the sun. When that gets boring I break out the Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, which was given to me in Novosibirsk by Sasha. I guess she
knew I would need it at some point.
I'm starting to feel a bit ill today and my throat hurts and I think I have a cold coming along, which is seriously bad timing considering I have an eight hour hard seat journey ahead. It's nothing more than a small cold, but when you're perched on an uncomfortable, reasonably hard seat designed to hold 3, with 4 people on it; the gangways packed with people standing; no air conditioning; it smells and people spit and throw their rubbish onto the floor. It turns out to be a horrific journey and I get about 2 hours intermittent sleep, hugging my rucksack trying to use it as a pillow.
Chinese hard seat trains are definitely for day journeys and not long night ones, but when there are no tickets left it becomes the only option (although it is considerably cheaper, for a reason).
Showing posts with label Pingyao. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pingyao. Show all posts
Friday, 28 August 2009
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Day 31 - Pingyao
22.08.09
Dodging the onslaught of taxi drivers at the station who literally stalk me as I cannot possibly walk for some reason, I trek around the town's intact 600+ year old outer walls and in the north gate in search of my hostel. It is like walking through some kind of time warp as you enter the town, the buildings all look original and the streets are cobbled and narrow. I can see why it is a Unesco World Heritage Site, the town is really beautiful and to top it off my hostel is located right in the middle of town in a Ming dynasty courtyard house.
Once I've checked in I take a walk around the town and as it approaches 9am, the town starts to pack out with Chinese tour groups and weird electric large scale golf carts. You aren't allowed 'engined' vehicles inside the town, so electric buggies are used instead of taxis or coaches to ferry all the tourists and tour groups around.
My first foray into the world of Chinese hostels and I'm sharing my 3 bed room with one guy called Marcus who is from Italy. He's got some good stories about the places he's been and gives me some tips about where to visit, but says the best place in Asia is North Korea. It's hard to go and costs a bomb to get into, but he says it is an amazing and a fascinating place and makes everywhere else seem boring.
Today I am again stunned by the domestic tourism market and how many people there are in Pingyao on tour groups. Where do they all come from and how can they afford to all go on these expensive tours.
Dodging the onslaught of taxi drivers at the station who literally stalk me as I cannot possibly walk for some reason, I trek around the town's intact 600+ year old outer walls and in the north gate in search of my hostel. It is like walking through some kind of time warp as you enter the town, the buildings all look original and the streets are cobbled and narrow. I can see why it is a Unesco World Heritage Site, the town is really beautiful and to top it off my hostel is located right in the middle of town in a Ming dynasty courtyard house.
Once I've checked in I take a walk around the town and as it approaches 9am, the town starts to pack out with Chinese tour groups and weird electric large scale golf carts. You aren't allowed 'engined' vehicles inside the town, so electric buggies are used instead of taxis or coaches to ferry all the tourists and tour groups around.
My first foray into the world of Chinese hostels and I'm sharing my 3 bed room with one guy called Marcus who is from Italy. He's got some good stories about the places he's been and gives me some tips about where to visit, but says the best place in Asia is North Korea. It's hard to go and costs a bomb to get into, but he says it is an amazing and a fascinating place and makes everywhere else seem boring.
Today I am again stunned by the domestic tourism market and how many people there are in Pingyao on tour groups. Where do they all come from and how can they afford to all go on these expensive tours.
Day 32 - Pingyao
23.08.09
Another day in Pingyao and I'm sure I've already done most of the sights. I get chatting to two people from the hostel, Graham from Newcastle and Kieron from Cork in Ireland. Kieron is in his 40s, but every year since his mid twenties, heads off for a few of months and travels around a different region of the world, then comes back and finds some work so he can make some money to do it all over again. Graham is the same age as me, but didn't finish Uni and then worked for a year before motorbiking it around Europe and camping for several months.
I get chatting to Graham, who tells me that China's death penalty rate is higher than the rest of the world combined and it's normally carried out by local official, using a gun to the back of the head. They are now Implementing 'Death Vans' that will come to your house and do it by lethal injection as it is easier, less traumatic for the official and guarantees a clean 'result'. Also there are apparently forced labour camps which anyone can be sent to, including tourists.
In near enough the same conversation a man who works at the hostel talks about how China is extremely poor and all we see is the tourist side, we will never be allowed to see or go to the the real rural China, away from the cities or tourist areas. It's an interesting conversation and he says that Chinese people might not appear poor as they spend their money on making themselves look comfortable and image is very important. He contrasts it with India, where he says it is more spiritual and people care about within, rather than their external appearance. He says that there has been violence and protests due to the inequality between the rich and the poor and that the government are trying to build temples and increase the spiritual focus of the nation to try and calm people down.
It turns out to be a very interesting few hours and it's quite rare to get people talking about the political state of the country, especially with any kind of negative view. China is definitely not all rosy.
Another day in Pingyao and I'm sure I've already done most of the sights. I get chatting to two people from the hostel, Graham from Newcastle and Kieron from Cork in Ireland. Kieron is in his 40s, but every year since his mid twenties, heads off for a few of months and travels around a different region of the world, then comes back and finds some work so he can make some money to do it all over again. Graham is the same age as me, but didn't finish Uni and then worked for a year before motorbiking it around Europe and camping for several months.
I get chatting to Graham, who tells me that China's death penalty rate is higher than the rest of the world combined and it's normally carried out by local official, using a gun to the back of the head. They are now Implementing 'Death Vans' that will come to your house and do it by lethal injection as it is easier, less traumatic for the official and guarantees a clean 'result'. Also there are apparently forced labour camps which anyone can be sent to, including tourists.
In near enough the same conversation a man who works at the hostel talks about how China is extremely poor and all we see is the tourist side, we will never be allowed to see or go to the the real rural China, away from the cities or tourist areas. It's an interesting conversation and he says that Chinese people might not appear poor as they spend their money on making themselves look comfortable and image is very important. He contrasts it with India, where he says it is more spiritual and people care about within, rather than their external appearance. He says that there has been violence and protests due to the inequality between the rich and the poor and that the government are trying to build temples and increase the spiritual focus of the nation to try and calm people down.
It turns out to be a very interesting few hours and it's quite rare to get people talking about the political state of the country, especially with any kind of negative view. China is definitely not all rosy.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Day 25 - Beijing
16.08.09
Living it up like Chinese royalty in the Summer Palace is on the agenda today. I'm following Xiao's instructions and on the number 10 bus, which is a double decked air conditioned affair. Waking up at the crack of dawn I make it to the Palace at about 8.45 and considering the doors open at 8.30, it should be quite quiet. However this is not the case and over the next two hours it goes from being quite busy to absolutely rammed.
It's an amazing place to walk around and the grounds are ridiculously big, the Emperors and Empresses really did live it up back in the day. The only downside is that like most of Beijing there seems to be a low level mist/fog that has engulfed everything and puts visibility down to around 150-200m, after that you can't see a thing. I'm not sure if it is weather based or a by product of the endless building work, cars, factories and general pollution. For the sake of my lungs, I'm hoping it's just the weather.
Xiao and Yu leave today to go back to Shanhaiguan, so I meet up with them to see them off and yet again I'm in amazement at people's generosity and kind hearted spirit. Learning from my mistakes, I book into a hostel in both Xi'an and and Pingyao, so I definitely have places to stay when I arrive. I'm also amazed to find out that online you can get some ridiculous deals and I
basically pay about £1.80 for two nights in a hostel in Pingyao and £15 for five nights in Xi'an, wonderfully cheap. I've come to the conclusion, that if you don't visit the expensive tourist sites, then you can easily live for around £10-12 a day, including money to travel between the cities every couple of days.
Living it up like Chinese royalty in the Summer Palace is on the agenda today. I'm following Xiao's instructions and on the number 10 bus, which is a double decked air conditioned affair. Waking up at the crack of dawn I make it to the Palace at about 8.45 and considering the doors open at 8.30, it should be quite quiet. However this is not the case and over the next two hours it goes from being quite busy to absolutely rammed.
It's an amazing place to walk around and the grounds are ridiculously big, the Emperors and Empresses really did live it up back in the day. The only downside is that like most of Beijing there seems to be a low level mist/fog that has engulfed everything and puts visibility down to around 150-200m, after that you can't see a thing. I'm not sure if it is weather based or a by product of the endless building work, cars, factories and general pollution. For the sake of my lungs, I'm hoping it's just the weather.
Xiao and Yu leave today to go back to Shanhaiguan, so I meet up with them to see them off and yet again I'm in amazement at people's generosity and kind hearted spirit. Learning from my mistakes, I book into a hostel in both Xi'an and and Pingyao, so I definitely have places to stay when I arrive. I'm also amazed to find out that online you can get some ridiculous deals and I
basically pay about £1.80 for two nights in a hostel in Pingyao and £15 for five nights in Xi'an, wonderfully cheap. I've come to the conclusion, that if you don't visit the expensive tourist sites, then you can easily live for around £10-12 a day, including money to travel between the cities every couple of days.
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