We are currently in Xi'an. Beijing was a wonderful experience, for the amazing cultural treasures and the fantastic time we had with our hosts. The day we went to the Forbidden City we got back at 6pm, had a great time making dumplings which our family and their friends, then tried to make out the rules as they settled down to a long night of Mahjong, with side bets. There was no confusion as to which country we were in.
We also now have Chinese names - mine is Wen Huilan, which is a bit like Win (for Winter) Auspicious Orchid, although the Hui bit means lots of things - all good, I am assured. I think this is Xuemei and Yinghui's idea of a joke because they said it was a very traditional Chinese name, very tender sounding with overtones of being a good housewife.
We also found out that Lao means old/respected; to take something out of water; work; or to cook pancakes, depending on the intonation. No wonder that when I tried to use my rudimentary Chinese to say I am vegetarian (woor char sui) in a restaurant, the waiter nodded understandingly, and quickly brought us a pot of green tea.
We went 'soft sleeper' from Beijing to Pingyao - the equivalent of 'kupe' in Russia. The two Chinese businessmen we shared with were a bit surprised, but as we all quickly settled down to sleep, it was all OK. We arrived in Pingyao at 5.30am, were met by someone from our lovely hostel, and whisked away to some much needed solitude. As we got to the hostel at 5.45am, you can imagine, I scampered into bed like a squirrel up a tree. Andy was very confused. "It's only an hour to breakfast! I though we could go and explore." As if!
When we did make it out, at a respectable 9.30, we found Pingyao was lovely, but, like much of China, very polluted - mostly coal dust everywhere. Many people smoke, and spitting is very much still evident. It's not the occasional discreet bit of saliva - and the accompanying gurgles and hawking have to be heard to be believed.
We negotiated our way onto a bus to the Qiao House, about an hour away from Pingyao. This was where one of my favourite films, Raise the Red Lantern, was filmed. It was interesting to see a place that had not been restored to within an inch of its life, but without much English signage, much of what we saw was unfortunately, unintelligible.
Yesterday we hired bikes and headed off out of town to the Shuanglin Temple. It took us about half an hour of fumes and 'hellos!' to get there, and gave us great views of the local agriculture. When we got there it was a lovely Autumn day, with a few other tourists around, but not many, and lots of peaceful sunlit courtyards and ancient painted sculptures to peruse.
We are becoming very indebted to UNESCO for getting to most places before us, and sorting out which bits are really worth seeing. World Heritage rocks!
When we got back to Pingyao, (neither of us could quite believe we were casually cycling through central China, without a care in the world) we toddled round the ancient walls on our bikes, but were reluctant to part with the 120Y (about a tenner each, an extortionate price here) to go up onto the ramparts. We went on to a famous Taoist Temple, only to find we needed the same expensive ticket to get us in there too.
We returned the bikes and mooched around the streets, looking at the innumerable old buildings (some were still in the process of being re?-built) and their associated knick-knack shops. We came across a bunch of Chinese tourists being herded in to an interesting looking temple and scootched in at the back, to spend a happy half hour in one of the best Taoist temples I have seen, with great views over the city to boot. Ha!
We got on our 'hard sleeper' train to Xi'an last night at about 7pm. We found ourselves next to a couple from Sheffield and a couple from Auz. The train was noisy, dirty, very smoky, smelly, and our berths were next to the toilets. Quick chat - open window, earplugs in, eyeshade on, thank genetics for poor sense of smell (Ta, Mum!) and slept until prodded by an officious railway personage at 6am. Welcome to Xi'an.