Here we are in the ancient city of Pingyao ! What an awesome step back in time. The cover picture for this blog entry is our private courtyard in the Hou family house, the house is made up of 5 courtyards like this with each courtyard being dedicated to workers, academics, a garden and even a temple. The house was built in 1736 and its stunning.
Beijing was awesome, the great wall was the highlight for me - it takes your breath away when you consider the history of it. thanks a million to Clyde for recommending Skye as a tour guide, she was brilliant - and asked us to pass on her best wishes to the Hurley clan.
We arrived on the night train from Beijing a couple of hours ago, it's a 13 + hour trip so doing it overnight was way easier than sitting bored on a train or bus all day. The kids were celebrities at the train station and on the train, we had people visiting from other carriages to come see the nutty kiwis making their kids lug their own baggage around, at least they didn't get dragged away for photos again as they did at the summer palace though, you would have thought Brad and Angelina had turned up as they were dragged into family photos, hugged squeezed and patted on the head.
Once everyone is showered and ready we will head off exploring again, there is a lot to see so will post some more photos later.
Zai jian
Jason