Pingyao
It's raining hard in Pingyao today. Arrived yesterday early in the morning from Datong. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. Pingyao is a small town (pop. 40.000) enclosed by a completely intact wall from the Ming dynasty. Most of the town center is still in it's original state, making it a popular location for historical movies. The streets are lined with classical courtyard houses with colored paintings on wooden panels under the roof. Many are converted into guesthouses and/or restaurants, many others are antique and souvenir shops. The main streets are quite touristy and crowded, but once you step into a side street you go back in time several hundred years. Motorized traffic is not allowed in the city center during the day, except for electric taxis, which look like golf carts. Donkey carts are also common, giving the town an even more ancient look and feel, and of course there are people on bicycles everywhere.
I stayed in the Yamen Guesthouse, which is one of such a classical copurtyard house, with 4 courtyards, each with two small building facing each other, containing two guest rooms, and larger buildings separating the courtyards. Nice place, with very friendly staff and great atmosphere. I shared a room with a Belgian guy (!) whom I met at the Datong train station. The room was very nice, with Ming furniture and a huge brick bed from wall to wall.
In the town there are many temples and some old houses which have been the residence of important people and which are now turned into museums, showing room after room full of Ming and Qing furniture and paintings, on paper, silk, and on the walls. There is also a photography museum. Pingyao has a yearly international photography festival (http://www.pipfestival.com, not updated since 2004). It has several rooms dedicated to Chinese and international photographers, including Robert Capa and Ansel Adams. Most of the Chinese photography is from between 1930 and 1960.
After a full day of wandering around the city, you kind of have seen it all, and there isn't much of entertainment in the evening, except hanging out in the guesthouse chatting with fellow travellers. I will probably leave today to some other place, but I don't know where to yet...
I stayed in the Yamen Guesthouse, which is one of such a classical copurtyard house, with 4 courtyards, each with two small building facing each other, containing two guest rooms, and larger buildings separating the courtyards. Nice place, with very friendly staff and great atmosphere. I shared a room with a Belgian guy (!) whom I met at the Datong train station. The room was very nice, with Ming furniture and a huge brick bed from wall to wall.
In the town there are many temples and some old houses which have been the residence of important people and which are now turned into museums, showing room after room full of Ming and Qing furniture and paintings, on paper, silk, and on the walls. There is also a photography museum. Pingyao has a yearly international photography festival (http://www.pipfestival.com, not updated since 2004). It has several rooms dedicated to Chinese and international photographers, including Robert Capa and Ansel Adams. Most of the Chinese photography is from between 1930 and 1960.
After a full day of wandering around the city, you kind of have seen it all, and there isn't much of entertainment in the evening, except hanging out in the guesthouse chatting with fellow travellers. I will probably leave today to some other place, but I don't know where to yet...
posted by marc at 12:15
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