A Korean Exchange

We had one more day and night left in Pingyao, before an early rise and long bus ride to the northern city of Datong.

We headed out on a bus ride that lasted about an hour to visit the Wang family house, famous for being the setting of the Chinese movie Raise the Red Lantern. The size of the house, and the sheer number of courtyards was enough to rival any British castle - they were massive! Gardens, courtyards, buildings… all for the Wang family and its (evidently) kazillions of relatives.

We had two hours at the house, which wasn’t enough time to see it all. I can’t think of a better place to have played hide and seek, however. We found that many of the lodgings of the extended family to be more or less the same. Chinese history, which is so cumbersome and challenging when you read about it, becomes far more interesting when it’s brought to life.

We headed back to Pingyao and ate in this sketchy restaurant just outside the city wall. There was actually a cat crawling around the room, and apparently the bathrooms were the worst so far in China - I chose to wait, instead of experiencing that kind of disgustingness.

The afternoon was free - we chilled out in the guesthouse, watching XXX2: State of the Nation. I can’t describe this movie. Like the first one, only without the stripping scene around the bedroom and snowboarding. Instead there were boats, a tank-jacking and some bullet train fun.

Went for a bit of a walk and did some reading for the rest of the afternoon. I headed out with Jason and Rob to the Western restaurant for some supper, and we met up with Fiona and Emma there. After suggesting to the French couple hogging the Internet that there were others waiting, we all ended up checking our email before heading back to watch a movie.

The plan had been to watch the Raise the Red Lantern film, but the VCD was horrendous, so we ended up watching a movie that Gerald had purchased called the Chinese Ghost Story. It was really good, and the local kids at the guesthouse were transfixed by the photo. I, however, blame that movie for the sighting of the figure at the end of my bed when I was awakened suddenly in the middle of the night. I spent the rest of the night sleeping restlessly, half hidden under blankets.

This morning we basically boarded a bus and headed straight to Datong. We stopped at the Hanging Temple about an hour outside of the city, which was apparently built around 451 AD into the side of this hill. It was fascinating to see - we all ended up in the photos of some Chinese tourists - but the construction of the monastery was a little sketchy. There was a mandatory 1yuan insurance premium on the ticket, and we noted that the skinny (cracked) wooden pillars supporting the entire temple were held up by wooden wedges that had been pounded in. There was little concern for safety. George thinks we could have gotten 500,000 yuan (well, our heirs) if we died from the insurance policy.

Anyway! Time is up - I should get to bed. Tomorrow we visit the Yungang Grottoes, take a 6hr train from Datong and end up in Beijing! The trip is drawing to an end!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 at 11:58 am and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.