Pingyao

Pingyao Picasa Photo Album

As I mentioned previously, this past week was a week off from school, so I did some traveling. On Saturday, I took a night train from Beijing to Pingyao. Unfortunately, Liu Kai and I were unable to get a bed on the train, and so we were stuck sitting in a seat all night for all 12 hours of the train ride, due to the busy traveling of National Day holiday week. That said, I was thankful to at least have a seat--I think there were just as many people on our train without seats (who either stood or sat on the floor) as people with seats. It didn't help to arrive in Pingyao so tired, since I never really fell asleep on the train, but after taking a short nap at our hostel, I felt quite refreshed.

Pingyao is called "possibly the best-preserved ancient walled city in China" in Lonely Planet, and that description sums up the city nicely. It flourished as a merchant town during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and it still has the city walls and much of the architecture built at that time. It was also the first city to have banks and checks in China.

We stayed a total of two nights. Unfortunately, it rained on us almost the whole time, but that may have been a blessing in disguise since it seemed to keep the crowds low. On to the pictures...