January 29 - February 1

The train to Pingyao was the first train we caught alone. We were and I am not exagerating the only Westerners on the train. We had a ten hour ride ahead of us and hard seats, which numbed your bottom within minutes.

The train was so busy it was first come first served for seats there were so many people standing. I was once again the centre of attention on the train, once the train had cleared a little men would come sit opposite and stare at me for a few minutes.

We were picked up from the station around 4am in Pingyao and headed straight to our hostel, which even in the dark looked amazing. It wasn't until daylight however that we saw how beautifully ornate it was. Once you past through the front of the building through reception, you entered a courtyard. The courtyard was long and thin and each doorway was hand carved and decorated with streams of lanterns, newly put up for the forthcoming lantern festival. The courtyard was an impressive mixture of black, white and stone, dating back no doubt a few hundred years. All this for six pounds a night. We were very lucky indeed.

Pingyao is a walled town, inbetween Xi'an and Beijing. The town on the outside of the wall was a sprall of cars, people and neon lights. On the inside of the walls, it was a different matter, it was like Adam and I had somehow fallen into a black hole and been transported back 700 years. If you ignored the masses of new year tourists and shops selling the same thing, you could get lost for an entire day down the town's back streets and alley ways. We did just that everyday we were there.

We learnt how to make Chinese dumplings and made friends with a two lovely Danish couples inbetween walking and exploring. We just chilled out properly for a few days, our tour on the Trans Siberian had been fun, but it hadn't half taken it out of us. Pingyao was so lovely, it is place I will never forget.