Going West
While sitting in the Pingyao guesthouse, already checked out, drinking jasmine tea, I was pondering my next move. I decided to go West, final destination Xining. I had heard about this place while I was in Chengdu, where I talked with this British girl from Manchester who was doing a Ph.D on dog shit. I think I wrote about that several weeks ago. She was telling me about Xining, recommending it highly as an alternative to Tibet. Although not part of Tibet, the region around Xining is inhabited mostly by Tibetan people, and its right on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The city of Xining has an elevation of 1600m, but the plateau rises quickly on the western side.
To go there from Pingyao, I should basically go straight West, but the options for train or bus travel are limited. I took a bus back to Taiyuan (2 hrs) where I arrived yesterday early in the morning by train from Datong before coming to Pingyao.
Departing Pingyao in the rain, I arrived in front of the train/bus station, but the intersection was completely flooded. I walked up together with a girl from Pingyao who was also headed for Taiyuan, and she suggested to take a cab to cover the final 50m through 30cm of water. That worked perfectly, and the 5 Yuan spent spared us two pairs of soaked shoes.
After arrival in Taiyuan at around 4 pm, I found out that to go West towards Xining (which is really quite far from here) I can't get very far today. So I decided to stay overnight here, and tomorrow I will take a long-distance sleeper bus to Lanzhou (22 hrs), which will leave at 10 am. Lanzhou should be interesting enough for an overnight stay, and from there it's about 8 hours to Xining. So, my itinerary for the next 3 days is pretty much settled.
From Xining I will move South slowly. Towards Chengdu probably, where I will possibly meet up with Tina and her friend, who lives in a village on Emei Shan, one of the sacred mountains which was on my list while I was in Chengdu earlier, but due to lack to time on my way to Mongolia, I had to skip it and settle for a somewhat lesser mountain (Qingcheng).
Since I have to spend the whole evening here in Taiyuan, I will upload some photos from the Yungang caves and Pingyao. I settled myself with a beer and some peanuts in one of those huge internet bars which you see here a lot, with hundreds of seats. Most people playing games or chatting. All pc's are equipped with headsets and webcams, and it's easy to plug in your camera with a usb cable.
To go there from Pingyao, I should basically go straight West, but the options for train or bus travel are limited. I took a bus back to Taiyuan (2 hrs) where I arrived yesterday early in the morning by train from Datong before coming to Pingyao.
Departing Pingyao in the rain, I arrived in front of the train/bus station, but the intersection was completely flooded. I walked up together with a girl from Pingyao who was also headed for Taiyuan, and she suggested to take a cab to cover the final 50m through 30cm of water. That worked perfectly, and the 5 Yuan spent spared us two pairs of soaked shoes.
After arrival in Taiyuan at around 4 pm, I found out that to go West towards Xining (which is really quite far from here) I can't get very far today. So I decided to stay overnight here, and tomorrow I will take a long-distance sleeper bus to Lanzhou (22 hrs), which will leave at 10 am. Lanzhou should be interesting enough for an overnight stay, and from there it's about 8 hours to Xining. So, my itinerary for the next 3 days is pretty much settled.
From Xining I will move South slowly. Towards Chengdu probably, where I will possibly meet up with Tina and her friend, who lives in a village on Emei Shan, one of the sacred mountains which was on my list while I was in Chengdu earlier, but due to lack to time on my way to Mongolia, I had to skip it and settle for a somewhat lesser mountain (Qingcheng).
Since I have to spend the whole evening here in Taiyuan, I will upload some photos from the Yungang caves and Pingyao. I settled myself with a beer and some peanuts in one of those huge internet bars which you see here a lot, with hundreds of seats. Most people playing games or chatting. All pc's are equipped with headsets and webcams, and it's easy to plug in your camera with a usb cable.
posted by marc at 19:14
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