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So after surviving our first night on a Chinese train we arrived in lovely PIngyau with a new challenge- to try as many types of Chinese transport as possible. Added to our list by getting a motorbike-powered rickshaw from the station into town.
There's lots of Western gap-yahs here...probably more tourists than we saw in the whole of Beijing in fact. Although that doesn't seem to put the Chinese off their fascination with us- the paparazzi style seems ever less subtle. We have a new policy- were doing "peace" signs every time we catch a photo being taken. Still think the worst was when we were trying to wrap ourselves in delightful plastic ponchos to avoid the Beijing rain, and looked up to see that we had a ring of fans filming the whole process. Chinese man asks me at breakfast where I get my hair dyed...don't think the concept that being in any way "ginger" can be natural is a concept that they understand.
While we're say having breakfast there's the sudden beat of a gong and all of a sudden there appears a procession of about 50 people in Chinese costume suddenly appear from nowhere. Very bizarre, but as we discover later, it happens all the time, and you get used to it! Essentially, ever since we got here something has caused us amazement or chuckles every fifteen minutes....would be great even if there wasn't anything to do!
Pingyau is a unesco world heritage sight and is eveything you would want from a beautiful traditional chinese town- red lanterns, cobbly streets, lots of lovely old temples
And great bit high city walls, which of course we climbed just for the photo opportunities! We've climbed so many buildings already, going to have calves of steel by the end of this holiday. I managed to find Nicola a lovely blue plastic visor complete with fold down sunglasses and a solar powered hat, as a thank you for the head gear she bought me yesterday. More hilarious photo opportunities for the Chinese tourists.
We pottered off to have some lunch in a lovely courtyard restaurant recommended by lonely planet (currently our bible). Chatty Chinese man recornded Pingyau beef and dumplings were delicious. And we had "flour noodles in the shape of cats ears", which were in a sort of soy broth- yummy!. And the little courtyard was beautiful.
I persuaded nic to help add to our list of Chinese transport by hiring a tandem to cycle around the city walls. £3 for 6 hours is a bit of a bargain, but after a series of attempts mostly ending up crashing into various items I got demoted to the back seat on account of my inability to steer. Anyway, once we got our team working and communication skills in gear we got going and had a Whizz about the city trying to avoid the speeding golf buggies that are so loved by all the Chinese tourists. Did however manage to hold on with one hand so I could get a short video!
We also had a chance to try the infamous green pea ice pops...pretty much as disgusting as they sound. Tried to give it to a small child but even at about 20 months he was switched on enough that the thing ws revoltig Sweetcornt soup has also been blacklisted.
Spent our last few hours in lovely PIngyau having some more food and watching all the lanterns being turned on...very beautiful! Ventured to the station and into our "soft" sleeper to go to xian (pronounced like chien in French) once the elderly lady who was a cabin mate eventually decided to get out of the bed she was sleeping in (which actually belonged to a dutch tourist who got on the train when we did!), and let us in to our cabin.
Looking forward to further crazy antics in Xian tomorrow!
Cx
- comments
Anne Read Hello girls, What a disppointment that the green pea ice pops, yearned for since you saw them in Beijing, were yukk! And was the 'soft' sleeper any less hard than the 'hard' sleeper? Tandem bikes are VERY difficult to ride - balance etc, but you managed to get round Pingyao walls OK so will be well-rehearsed for the walls of Xian....as you say, calf muscles are developing nicely. Hope Terracottas live up to their reputation... Love from Mum xx