Today we only have 300 km to drive to the ancient town of Pingyao. The city of Pingyao has a population of 10 million but we are staying in a lovely guest house inside the ancient walls.
We arrive by lunch time so we have all afternoon to explore this well preserved Han nationality town of the Ming & Qing dynasties.
We met a colleague of Tony’s in Beijing, Han Li who works with the residents & the local authorities of Pingyao to ensure that the buildings in the old town are restored to maintain the authentic architecture of their period. The town originally was established around banking and commerce, but after the banks moved out the main source of revenue for the town is now tourism. The buildings have lovely roof lines with beautifully detailed windows.
We visit an original bank from the town.
We visit a couple of temples. One has statues of the 12 Chinese Zodiac signs and Michael finds his match. The Rabbit!
We climb up onto the wall and walk half way around the wall exploring the gates and towers that we pass and the statues.
One of the gates even has cart wheel grooves in the stone road.
The town has one of the 3, 9 dragon murals in China which is beautiful. We saw another one at the Forbidden City in Beijing.
At night the streets come alive as the lights go on and the tourists come out to eat & shop.
News from Henk & Maja is good, Henk has no pain and they will be flying to Xian tomorrow to catch up with the rest of the team.
A Rabbit, his new racing logo?
Great new about Henk, I hope his travel insurance covers the cost!