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so i just typed out a big long entry and then the computer crashed and i lost it all! i even make computers in china malfunction! sigh.
anyway, i am in a little restuarant with free internet access so i am taking advantage. just stuffed my face and had an amazing fruit shake (pineapple, ice and milk) yum!
i survived the night train to pingyao. it was an interesting journey. it was much more crowded than i expected, each compartment had 6 beds (3 on top of each other at either side) and they were small compartments with each section of the train having about 10 compartments! i stocked up on food for the journey as didnt want to risk the questionable looking food the train was serving up. we went to the restaurant cart later on for a drink but the only alcohol they served was beer, so yes surprisingly i had a beer. out of the bottles as well. all class has went out the window! haha. there was big signs in the restaurant cart saying 'no smoking' but all the chinese men there were smoking anyway. one of the old men came up to us and gave us all a cigarette as a present which was nice of him but i did not smoke it! we arrived in pingyao at 730am yesterday.
pingyao is a lovely little town. it is a national heritage site and is one of the best preserved anicent walled towns in china. the pace is a little slower than beijing which is nice and the sun comes out here :D the people are really nice and say hello and smile in the street. yesterday we went to another temple (theres so many of them in asia!) it was one that was thousands of years old but it was beautiful. we also went to a restaurant where they had pigs intestines on the menu - yuck! the hotel was stunning, it had japanese style beds and a fancy bathroom. i better not get too used to this nice accommodation as when the tour ends the roughing it begins! haha. the bus driver we had yesterday to the temple said i am very brave to travel to china on my own and am very beautiful and i should marry his son! i politely declined ...
today i have wandered around the little streets and alleyways exploring the town. it is fun to people watch here - theres horse drawn carts, extremely old men on bicycles, people making soup in the street, people sleeping in hammocks and lovely little shops and stalls. i could buy so many things if i didnt have to carry them all around in my backpack for so long. ive also tried some food from street stalls (and havnt been ill so far!) found ace little peanut cakes and things called moon cakes which i love! the next thing i want to try is corn on the cobbs. they cook them on the street everywhere, im not sure what else is added to them but the smell so nice but just look a bit dodgy. will risk it at some point! i also met some little chinese students that wanted photos with me and wanted to know about where i am from. hardly anyone in china seems to have heard of scotland and so i am telling them all about it and how wonderful it is!
i was talking to my tour guide and mentioned that i would quite like to teach english abroad at some point. she got very excited and said she could find me a paid teaching job in china no problem! so now i have at least one job option for next year :)
i am catching another night train tonight to xi'an which is only a 9 hour journey so not as bad as the first one. we are going to see the terracotta warriors tomorrow which should be good to see.
thank you for all your messages so far, it is nice to read them when im so far away. will add some more photos over the weekend if i get a chance.
xxx
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