Value for money

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia)

Unfortunately there had been no through train from Datong to Pingyao, so we were awoken at 5.30am in Taiyuan, still 3 hours from our final destination. We found a minibus heading there, but had to wait an hour whilst it waited to fill up. We eventually arrived at 9.30, cold, tired and hungry. Luckily our hostel, Jinjinglou, was warm, friendly and set in a beautiful courtyard, right in the centre of Pingyao. After some breakfast, we felt ready to venture out into the town.

Pingyao is famed for its ancient city walls, so first up was to climb to the top of them, where we walked the length and breadth, to peer down over the town. Unfortunately the weather was a little bleak and they were also relaying the central streets, after fixing the water pipes.

This still couldn't deter from fact that it was a charming old town, with a laid back feel. After getting a birdseye view, we went into the central streets to explore at ground level. To actually enter old town Pingyao, you have to pay an admission fee, which basically gives you an admission into around 20 courtyards and temples, all of which are protected as a national heritage site. After visiting many of these, we called it a day and headed back to the hostel to relax. For dinner we went to a pretty cool little restaurant, which did a killer sweet and sour fish.

The next day we tried to take in some more of the small museums, whilst exploring some of the narrow back streets. We then had to catch a train to Taiyuan, but needed to stand for the duration of the 2 hour journey, as there were no seats. In Taiyuan, we tried to get a hard sleeper train to Tai'an, but as there were only seats available, we decided this was probably not wise, so just took tickets as far as Shijiazhuang.