This morning we
treated ourselves to breakfast at Petit Resto – omelettes, apple
and chocolate pancakes and some jasmine tea. Our museum tickets were
valid for one more day, so after breakfast we walked down the road
and used them to visit a large Taoist temple complex. First, however,
we stopped to watch a slightly odd parade go by. Made up of about 20
or so people in traditional outfits, it was headed by a sloppily
dressed guy smoking a cigarette and featured some guys on donkeys and
some women being carried in palanquins, and was followed by groups of
tourists in open-topped vehicles.
When we made our way
through the front gate into the temple, we found a path beside which
was arranged a series of water fountains representing the signs of
the Chinese zodiac – so of course we had to stand for photos with
our different signs. Inside was a big fountain into which people had
thrown loads of coins. The girls have become addicted to doing the
same, and as China has some coins with extremely low denominations, I
often give them a couple to throw in. In this particular fountain
there were some small pots, and they both had a go at trying to throw
their coins into them. Sarah missed, so Zoe took her turn. As she
prepared to throw, the odd angle at which she was holding her arm
prompted both Kate and I think that she would miss by a mile, but lo
and behold, her throw went straight in without touching the sides.
Hence the raised arms in the photo below.
Our next stop was a
Confucian temple complex across the road, which was first built in
the seventh century, but had been destroyed, restored and
significantly expanded since then. Unlike the Taoist temple across
the road, which was a bit gaudy and filled with lurid statues of
various gods and demons, it was pleasantly austere, with a lovely
water feature running through the centre.
We walked all the
way through to an exit on the other side, which opened onto a hot and
dusty road almost adjacent to the city's south wall. We had one last
'museum' to visit: the residence of a local notable – the founder
of a bank, I think. We then walked out one of the smaller gates and
around the outside of the walls to the West Gate, where we had lunch
at our noodle guy's stall. Afterwards, we went back to the
hairdressers where Zoe and Sarah had had their trims and Kate and I
got our hair cut – also for a crazy 20 yuan (£2) each. We then
stopped off at a supermarket to get some stuff for tomorrow's train
ride back to Beijing - little packets for breakfast, drinks and pot
noodles – along with a couple of t-shirts for the girls. We also
picked up another duck for dinner.
Our museum tickets
also gave us access to top of the city walls, so later in the
afternoon, when it was a bit cooler, we walked over to the North Gate
and climbed the stairs up to the top. Our plan had been to walk the
whole circuit – about six kilometres in total, but when we got to
the top I noticed what appeared to be a barrier erected across the
walkway about 100 metres away from the stairs. Sure enough, it was
closed off for 'repairs', so we headed in the other direction to see
how far we could get. Although the area around the stairs was fairly
busy with Chinese tourists, once we started walking we had the wall
pretty much to ourselves.
We hadn't been
walking for long when Kate excitedly called me over to 'battlements'
on the outside of the wall. Now, one of my few disappointments about
leaving Europe was that we had never seen a hoopoe, an odd-looking
bird with a long thin bill and a distinctive 'crown' of feathers on
the top of its head. It's found across Afro-Eurasia and I had always
been on the lookout for one when we travelled but had never been
lucky enough to come across one. I looked where Kate was pointing and
– yes! - there, poking around on the grass at the base of the wall,
was a hoopoe! Ambition achieved.
Built during the
14th century, the walls are about 12 metres high and
feature 72 watchtowers, as well as the larger towers atop the gates.
From such a high vantage point we had a great view of the city,
allowing us to peer into courtyards and generally get a better idea
of how people live in the 'real' Pingyao. We saw people squatting in
abandoned buildings (living in them, rather than crouching down in
them) and others living in buildings where walls had completely
collapsed.
We walked all the
way around to a gate in the south wall, where our progress was halted
by another barrier and we were forced to climb back down. Back at
ground level we walked together for bit and then split up – the
girls went off for another foot massage while I explored some of the
back streets. As I was walking, a van painted in camouflage colours
drove past me. At first I assumed that it was some sort of army
vehicle, but peering through the tinted windscreen, the guys inside
looked like civilians. Later, the same van passed me going the other
way. Not long after that, I turned a corner and came across the van
parked by the side of the road with its passengers arrayed around its
rear – policemen dressed head to toe in black with bullet-proof
vests on and, in a few cases, armed with pump-action shotguns. They
all seemed very relaxed and jolly but I didn't wait around to see
what they were up to.
When the others got
back with their thoroughly pampered feet (apparently the women in the
massage place had been slightly horrified by the state of Sarah's), I
got some fried bread and pancake and we had our customary dinner in
the courtyard.
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