Pingyao and Xi'an
30/11/2010 - 06/12/2010
10 °C
We arrived in Pingyao last Wednesday after a fairly uneventful night train, except for Jay trying to go to the toilet in a room that definitely wasn't a bathroom! The trains are alright, 3 bunks high and made for people shorter than me. It seems like whether you go 500km or 1000km the trains take 12 hours, so I'm not sure what weird route they're taking.
Pinyao was really beautiful, it's an old walled city and very well preserved with no cars allowed in the centre. Thankfully it was a bit warmer than Beijing so I've now defrosted 
Here are a few pictures of Pinyao:
There are a lot of coal mines nearby & it's the main fuel people use so the whole city is covered in a layer of soot and at night you can't see more than about 50 metres with the smog. I wonder if that's what it was like living in London 100 years ago.
After Pingyao we caught the train to Xi'an where we are now, I was on the top bunk which is extremely high and I was pretty scared of falling out in my sleep, made it there in one piece although we've got top bunks again tonight for a 16 hour journey to Shanghai.
The main reason for us visiting Xi'an was the Army of Terracotta Warriors which we visited yesterday, they were really amazing to see, but what i liked most is that each warrior is individual, from the face and wrinkles to the hairstyle and fingernails, so much detail has gone into all 6,000 of them.
We went with a group from the hostel and had a guide JaJa who took a liking to Jay which was very funny, every couple of minutes she'd be calling "Jason Jason" and wanting to show or tell him something!
Jay with a head of a warrior, although not the real ones!
Food in China has been a lot better than we expected, except Pingyao where one place had a menu translated into English (rather than the usual pictures) and they had donkey, dog mean, cat's ear and somethings penis, we ordered "chicken" and I'm very much hoping that was what it was, since then I've been a little put off eating...
We're off to Shanghai tonight and then hopefully Hong Kong in a couple of days.
Posted by katcharles 05/12/2010 21:04 Archived in China
