This is my story about visiting a very old city in China. If you read my last post you would have known that I was arriving in Pingyao, China from Nepal. (Traveled June 2012)
Pingyao is located in the Shanxi province of China and is southwest of the capital, Beijing. The remarkable fact about this city is the age, at almost 2,700 years old. Pingyao is also one of the best preserved wall cities in the world (Most of it’s walls are original and still standing up). The origins of the city are rich in history and Pingyao is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Those are just some of the reasons we (not traveling solo) traveled there back in June 2012. We also needed a side trip to somewhere else besides Beijing and this seemed like a great substitute.
After we arrived we were immediately approached by several men on rickshaws/trams type of things. They were basically motorized people movers that you see at airports and are annoying to be around. First they will always try to overcharge you and you shouldn’t pay more than 10 yuan to go anywhere. And second they are also honking their horns to try to get business or simply want you to get out of their way.
So we took one not realizing where we needed to go and how far our hotel was from the bus station (It ended up not being far but it’s better to have guidance and reference the first time you’re in an unfamiliar city).
Our hotel was rated the 2nd best hotel to stay in and was one of the most decently priced hotels we stayed at for our entire journey. Most of the hotels here a fairly inexpensive and will only cost you max 30 dollars a night. The hotel is in a traditional Chinese setting and has a traditional bedroom. It’s quite cute actually and will be a highlight of your stay in Pingyao. Most of the hotels inside the walls offer rooms like this and if you’re wondering what a traditional Chinese room is… it mostly consists of a flat surface with a mattress and soft blankets. Quite comfy actually. And usually the room will come with some sort of teas with a hot water heater.
When it comes to eating you better look outside of the city walls. Unfortunately since this is a touristy place they overcharge you on food and half the time you don’t even know what you are ordering or it’s not authentic. Some of the food you will look a, and not want to eat it. This is going to sound lame but we ate at this place called Dicos. A Chinese fast food restaurant that serves chicken and fries mostly but it’s excellent to have if you’re having a hard time with food (and they have awesome sweet tea).
We spent a weekend in Pingyao which more than enough. Tour the city and soak up how buildings that are thousands of years old. Artifacts that are surprisingly well preserved. You will be amazed to see things so ancient it’s kind of hard to fathom. And of course the city walls. Pingyao is famous for it’s city walls that are some of the best well preserved throughout the world.
We toured peoples old homes, the old post office and the old bank. What’s cool is you can see the pictures of the families that use to live in these ancient homes. I kind of wonder what happened to the families that lived here but unfortunately they really don’t tell you why everybody left. Everything about this city is very uniform. So harmonious with one another, the city is designed to almost function as one.
After a while you do see a lot of the same architecture styles over and over again and you get kind of tired of it all. There is so much to know about this city that it’s kind of overwhelming. I had caught a virus somewhere in Nepal and my stomach was still hurting so I was little grouchy while touring Pingyao. But I did try to take in the information as much as possible. They do offer tours in English to all of the sites but honestly I didn’t want to be apart of a group and pay more when all of these sites where in walking distance from our hotel.
You will most likely be one of the few foreigners in the city. It’s interesting that most foreigners still don’t know about Pingyao or don’t put it on top of their must sees when visiting China. It is certainly out of the way from the mainstream travel because it’s harder to get to.
Regardless if you are nearby it’s definitely a must see but I would only budget a 2-3 day maximum here. You can get most things done pretty quickly (depending on how much of a history buff you are).
There are no sites that top the any other ones but I would definitely walk around the top of the city walls. It’s was a little eerie sometimes as most of the locals and Chinese do not walk the up there as a whole (I’m not sure why). It might be the first time that you have some space to walk around without being honked at or being in a crowd!
If you plan to buy souvenirs beware that you are probably buying something that will cost you less anywhere else in China. It seems the local Chinese know this because people from China were not really the people shopping around. We ended up finding much of the same stuff in Beijing and it was probably selling for less. Also realize that everything in China is bartered. This is just how the Chinese get things done so make sure you never take the selling price that they first offered you. To them it’s more respectable if you are able to barter for what you want.
And so for 3 days we got to experience life in a kind of traditional setting.
Some beginner tid bits you should know about…
- Train tickets to Pingyao are easy to get but they don’t run as regularly compared to buses. Both options are crowded but at least on a bus you will have a guaranteed seat.
- Train stations are crazy in China. We went to the one in Pingyao and basically we had people yelling to get tickets and cutting in line. It’s hell. Chinese like to do this a lot it seems. There are no lines or respect to other people buying tickets in front of you. You just have to stick with your guns and push your way to the front and make sure to block anyone from trying to cut in front of you. We had at least 3 people try to do this to me and each time they were denied.
- People like to spit and hock up lugies. It’s gross and you may see this only a few times in the States but it is very common in China and in Nepal for that matter. Oh and this includes women.
- Being scammed or being charged more than you suppose to. Given that a lot of these people are still poor they will charge you more in any given situation. If you would like to pay more than go for it but China is the land of bartering. You have to play along and barter with them and be strong with how much you want to spend.
Well stay tuned for my next post where I leave Pingyao for Beijing.
2012 Asia Tour
Arriving in Kathmandu | Part Deux
A Scary Flight to Lukla, Nepal
Pingyao | A 2,700 year old City
The Birds Nest to Forbidden City
images by: shawnvoyage
