端午节 太原 15th June Taiyuan/pingyao
Got the slow train to Taiyuan prettycheap around 200 hard seat and about 13hours. Sleepy in the morning I tried to walk to the hostel I had booked. The directions I was given were wrong, a local security estate guard helped me ring confirming what he said, that it was ages away, and also that they couldn’t accept foreigners.... I’m not liking this new rule.... I need a chinese 身份证 哈哈 so, I trodded around asking some different hotels if they accepted they were expensive. Finally I found one guy who gave me a cheap price, and my own room close to the station for about 60 and didn’t care about not registering. I washed and napped briefly. The owner was super friendly with 2 kids, a boy and a younger daughter. I later met the mother also very friendly and helpful she had partial limbs due to what seemed like a skin/body disease and she also had red blotches and had to totter around on stubs but it didn’t seem to both, hinder nor stop her!
Upon looking at my ticket for PINGYAO 平遥I realised it was another far off station:... I didn’t have long. The taxi driver wanted a fee, I argued for meter and he still picked up others.... fs but I just made it! A comfortable high speed train I arrived quickly. Getting the bus outside the station to the old city. Perhaps there was a fee but there didn’t seem to be an office so I went on in.
Surprisingly not so many people which was nice. The place itself is huge and a bit of a maze. Not all of it has been refurbished and parts are in stages, of course there is also a very tourist area full of shops and nick knacks. And disgustingly lots of the Chinese alcohol but a darker version, not white or yellow rice wine 黄酒白酒， more like a darker cough medicine cola colour, the smell was horrid. And they had some more even running through mini fountains. In this area I tried some different flower and fruit tea samples, not a chinese brand but in fact German, all quite tasty.
I got a bit lost at times walking around, was interesting to see that people still lived here, within the high walls, some in the more run down houses, not too many, and more near the east/west outskirts nearer to the wall. A simple quiet traditional way of life feeling was given out from this, quite unlike so many of the ancient towns or Watertown’s I’d been to before, it was nice. I rested a while in a gazebo while the sun came out overall spending several hours there before heading back for my train around 6.
16th June 太原 TAIYUAN
Got up in the morning and found an unlocked mobike, complete with basket! I planned to visit the twin pagodas, the main route, which passed the station was shut due to roadworks. The alternative route was all up very steep hills! Upon eventually getting there I discovered it was closed for refurbished until September as I ended up chatting to a girl with her elderly Buddhist aged father who was in a wheelchair and I think had suffered a stroke or something as he was able to communicate properly. They were nice and we chatted away. Her dad gave me a Hulu Buddhist keyring and in return requested one of my bracelets as memory tokens. Was a nice thought.
I explored more on my bike, the museum was shut but I still was able to look around the outside before I went to a beautiful peaceful temple with only monks and a couple others around. It was quite big and I sat in the main garden area overlooking the fountain and goldfish reflecting and enjoying the sun. The monks were doing their fruit offering rounds, two stopped, on separate occasions to give me some fruit to eat which was very considerate and sweet of them, an apple, some bananas and a peach. People can be very touching to others at unexpected times. It’s lovely to see. From here I did another loop before settling in the large people’s park and relaxing at the pond. Here, unlike the temple was very busy and very big.
After this I headed to the train station to meet one of the local guys I had befriended, joking around with the taxi drivers while I waited who wanted to take me on a free tour, set me up with their sons and talk about british football and the upcoming World Cup. Haha
南京 nanjing
Having met and had some alone time with ryan and reb the day before and since it was still the holiday and she had kept going on about seeing it, I had bought everyone tickets including jim to go to Nanjing for the day. Meeting at Zhongshan Park in the morning upon trying to get the tickets we discovered Riley’s number was wrong and could only partially refund it. With no more tickets available we got him one for the next high speed. Ours was mid speed 2nd class sleeper ryan was angry stressed as someone should have stayed and Riley had no way of contact. We knew were he was going and his train we would arrive before. Upon arrival we got the metro to the next station meeting a chilled up riley who had really enjoyed his high speed experience... we got another return ticket. The same train was available but no seat so just got and I’d stand for my error. Not telling anyone but jim. The sun had come out. It was hot and humid. We walked round to the large park/ancient city walls xuanwu lake park 玄武湖 it had started to get humid. We soon were sticky. The park is beautiful this time Of year the lakes and pondoverflowing withhiant lilies and lily pads. We hit the street food area and then found a spot for a picnic enjoying the zongzi 粽子 I’d brought listening to music and playing some cards, we taught him snap jack. We sort of lazed in a heap for a while before checking out the small marriage market and going to the sun yay sen mausoleum area. Unfortunately it had reached its limit for the day but we strolled around relaxed before heading for the train. The boys getting a huge kfc feed. Upon arrival we got a taxi back. Jim with the others and myself on my own. A chilled day 端午节快乐 🐲
No comments:
Post a Comment