An Ancient Walled City, if You Please.

The D train from Beijing to Taiyuan was just fine, only about 4 hours. We then had to take a city bus to the bus station to get an intra city bus to our ultimate destination: Pingyao (Peen-ou in ‘ouch’). While aimlessly walking about, a woman from a bus yelled at us “Pingyao?” So we run over to the bus and paid the 26yaun each to get on. We had been told that there were buses that run for 24yaun p/p, but this was close enough for us. The only downside of taking this particular bus was that we went rather slow, so the 90 mins it should have taken us ended up to be solidly over 2 hours to get there. Once we arrived a man immediately approached us with a flyer from one of the hostels we had seen good things about, so we negotiated a price, and he took us there.

Coming in to the walled city. What a sight!

Our beautiful room. The bed is so comfy!

The hostel is called Harmony Guesthouse. The staff speaks excellent English and is very kind and helpful. They have daily tours to the various sites nearby (which we did not partake in). And they also own a bar a few doors down called the Cozy Bar, and it’s just that. They have food available at both the main guesthouse and the bar, and it is delicious and slightly cheaper than the other restaurants serving the same things. The room was amazing (though our bathroom smelled most of the time) and very beautiful. It was a great place to stay and we would recommend it to anyone looking for a place in the walled city.

One of the many restaurant fronts

A random collection of trinkets to buy

some matches (presumably special in some way) for sale

The city itself is a bit touristy with its repetitious stalls, restaurants, and shops selling exactly what the one a few doors down has, but it is quaint and fairly quiet, especially on the weekdays. You will have better luck negotiating prices on the weekdays when there is fewer tourists, therefore less business for the vendors. Also, many of the people speak at least some English, but if they don’t they will tell you the price of the item with their calculator.

To avoid the repetition and the higher tourist prices, we recommend you venture outside the walls and into the city itself. Just outside the west gate there is a market area with lots of vendors, stores and street food! You can get a bowl of noodles for 5yaun, skewers of meat from 2-5yaun each, and meat or veg stuffed steamed bums for 5yaun for 2! It’s a nice break from the high prices inside the walls, and it’s also fun to see the various foods and people. We ate at this market a few different times before we left, once we found it.

escaped from the compound!

Our four days in Pingyao was much more of the respite we were looking for than we received in Beijing. Though there wasn’t enough to “do” there to stay long term, we could have stayed at least a few more days and just lounged around and leisurely walked about and been completely content. The only reason we didn’t stay longer was because we had to leave. We were set to meet our friend Karen, and her son Joe, back in Beijing. So regretfully, we packed our things and said farewell to the lovely walled city of Pingyao, and we took our first overnight train, back to Beijing. 

beautiful park somewhere in the midst of the maze of walls

paper cutting by a famous local artist. absolutely impressive

One of the many forts of the walled city

the corner of the outside walls--from the inside!

Looking out across a waterway outside the walls of the city

Outside the city walls just before sunset

a grandfather and his grandson at work catching something

Please don't toot your own horn on this street. Thank you.

sadly it is blurry, but the orange glob in the center is a harvest moon with the lights of the city below