Píngyáo (平遥)

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Another longish day of driving most of which were on the express-way to save some time and ease the pain a little.

The afternoon activity was a guided visit to Zhangbi Underground Castle. The locals built 10kms of underground tunnels below their city as a defense against attackers that never came. 1.5kms of these tunnels have been restored and are open to the public and of course we had to pop down and see them. The tour also included a walk around the old town and visits to just about every temple they had. The old town has no running water, and instead of adding this basic utility, the Chinese government instead built rows of new brick and tile apartment buildings on the outskirts of town. So 90% of the village just got up and left the old town and headed to their new digs. Which unfortunately left the old town feeling a bit like a ghost town. With all of the apartment buildings we have seen under construction, we wondered if this story is repeating itself all over China.

Finding a hotel proved a little more time consuming than normal. Apparently the area where all of the hotels were has been leveled and there are no longer any hotels there anymore. A local took us on a bit of a tour of the old town to show us a hotel he thought would suit our needs, but unfortunately the restriction on cars in the city upset that plan. We ended up finding a perfectly good hotel just outside the city walls near the North gate. It had everything we needed for a good price and only a few minutes walk to the old city. And in the evening that is exactly what we did to find drinks and food.

Yet to be completed high-speed rail line.
Old Town Roofs.
The Tunnels

Friday, May 9, 2014

We slept in and throughly enjoyed it. But by 10am we were up and heading into the old town in search of coffee. We had moderate success with the coffee and in the process got to see the place a bit better. The old town is ringed with these giant defensive walls which are very impressive. The buildings appear to be very authentic and have not been overly invaded by tourists shops like Dali or Lijiang. In fact there are some very nice buildings which have been turned into up-market hotels with lovely foyers and courtyards.

Our morning was a little rushed as Stephen had a short list of jobs on Sterlin that needed attending to. A slightly better repair to the exhaust system was made with the addition of a bolt in the hole that had none, the water filter and fridge were inspected and cleaned, cooking stove tested, the fuel cans got moved to be balanced better in preparation for Mongolia where the fuel cans may actually get filled with fuel and the air compressor was tested (just to make sure it worked). Little jobs to before hitting the Mongolian desert and the resumption of camping. Everyhting seems to be in good working order.

We had spotted a SPAR supermarket the previous day and decided to go on a mini stocking up shopping spree. The supermarket had a very excellent range of products, and we managed to get most of what we needed and wanted. We even found something that looked like cornflakes. But more importantly we got cooking sauces, pasta, milk, coffee, tea and other essentials. We got back to the hotel as the sun was setting and just in time to join the others in search of a drink and dinner. The old town is quiet at night with a noticeable reduction in the number of tourists. It was also raining a little which did not help.