The overnight train from Xi'an had us in Pingyao at the crack of dawn, 5.30am to be exact. Neither were fully awake when we got off and it was with great relief that we found our pre-arranged pick-up waiting for us and we were checked into the guesthouse and into a comfortable bed soon afterwards.

Pingyao is probably the best-preserved ancient walled city in China, or so the guide book says. We stayed in a chinese guesthouse with a small double room which opened out into an open courtyard, very nice indeed. The town inside the ancient walls is pretty much undisturbed, full of narrow cobbled streets and houses that look like they're about to fall down. It was really nice walking around, once that is we got off the main streets which we crowded with tourist groups.

Unfortunately, the weather here has taken a turn for the worse and we spent our 2 days in Pingyao running between showers and it's also bitterly cold, the coldest we've experienced since New Zealand, almost 1 year ago. So much of our time was spent in the guesthouse reading, chatting, drinking, etc.

We met a New Zealand man who for the last 7 months has cycled from London and he still has the rest of Asia to go. His stories of Iran and Central Asia were amazing, definitely an eye-opener. With the Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals on over the weekend he gave us a free internet website to watch them live and managed to see the end of the England Australia match. I was meant to get back up to watch the France All Blacks games but at 3am the alarm went off as quick as it went on! Next morning was fun once we learned the result and the Kiwi man was in a state of shock (he had already made plans to see the semi and final in Beijing.

Due to the weather we really didn't do too much else in Pingyao. This morning we got the 7.30am bus to Taiyuan where, thanks to our guide book's inability to give proper distances, what was supposed to be a 2km walk into the city centre turned into a 50min hike with our backpacks searching for the PSB station to extend our Chinese Visas. When we eventually found it and someone who could understand us we found out that the extension would take up to 5 days so we thanked them and left. We got a 4 hour bus north to Datong where we will now be for about 4 days in the hope that the PSB station here can sort out our visas quicker. In the meantime we'll take in some of the sights here, of which there are many, and hope our visas are sorted before we leave for Beijing on Friday.