ladies and gent,
the title is one of the many chinglish we came upon on the road... this one is on every windows in Pingyao's guesthouses'. others include "you can make a group by your own" or "no lodge on the wall" ( as no sleeping on the wall) ... speaking of which The definitive highlight of Pekin City is ThE WaLl, drawing a line on the top of moutains for kms' on end, going up down up down up down...you get the picture. We ended up going on the hike the backpacker did. Not for the softies, steep hills followed by more stairs, breath taken away by views and by our level of fitness. Also, have to admit, gettin' better with the whole bag thing. After contemplating throwing everything out and travelling with just toothbrush and passport, the turtle house is quite comfie.
Speaking of which, we decided to do a detour south to Pingyao: medieval village in surprinsingly good state. Major tourist spot for chinese it is opening up (thanks lonely planet!??) to westerners. So this Ming/Qin vestiges' overall plan is one of a turtle. No buildings are high enough to check it out but it's quite interesting to find our way among this structure and endless courtyard (the most famous one is in town next door, where Red lantern was shot).
The Air is dry and dusty (don't even want to know what it's like is summer), the rythm pretty relax. Yesterday rented some bikes to go to a bouddhist temple just out of town. 2 kms' from guesthouse Em's back tire explodes!!! Where were you Matze? Anyway second go was good. So yeah today waiting around in the neighbourhood for our overnight train. this time we took hardsleeper. Last friday when the whim took us to head to Pingyao instead of Datong we ended up gettin' only standin' ticket. And we actually tried to organize it ( after the experience in Tianjin). Reservation can't be made too long in advance in China but Trains fill up so quick.
So take everything you thought of to fill up a train, multiply it by 10 and you're nowhere near it. What saved us was the chinese hospitality and an overzelous train controller. Indeed she kicked someone out of their seat for us. Nothing you can do about it. So for a few hours we felt really the twin connection (ha ha) sharing a seat for two. In the midst of the night after the 5th stop or something like that finally managed to sleep a few hours. Unforgettable experience ( not to do too many time if you wanna stay sane!)
Luv from Turtle town
