Friday, August 20, 2010

Day 45: Pingyao (平遙)

Day Tour
Booked a day tour to the Wang Family Courtyard (王家大院) which was constructed in the mid-17th century and expansions continued for over a century. There are 123 courtyards and 1,118 houses within the complex, which we obviously only got to see a fraction of. After the courtyard we went to the Zhangbi Underground Castle (張壁古堡) which was constructed as a fortress 1400 years ago during the Sui dynasty (隋朝). This attraction sounded a lot cooler in the book, it was just a series of caves you walk through, but we still had a good time


From 77 Days in China
Outside the Wang family courtyards (王家大院)


From 77 Days in China


From 77 Days in China
It was a larger space and lest tourist groups than the other courtyard we went to


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From 77 Days in China


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From 77 Days in China


From 77 Days in China


From 77 Days in China


From 77 Days in China


From 77 Days in China


From 77 Days in China


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View from the courtyard walls


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Charlotte was the only one in the caves who didn't need to duck


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The commanders bedroom in the caves


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The only room for the soldiers to rest


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The town around the underground castle


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Locals hanging out in town


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Another shot of the town


Walking the city

After returning from the city tour we walked around town, got some food and relaxed the rest of the day. I wondered to the city walls at one point to try and get up to the top, a Slovakian guy told us where we could get up for free, but it turned out he was more daring than me as it looked like a 8-10 meter climb on the wall of the city, which I was not willing to do, especially in flipflops.  After touring the city we got some more food then charlotte got a foot massage and i got a very painful back massage to try and help recover from a month and a half of carrying my backpack

From 77 Days in China
A picture of the city walls around Pingyao (平遙古城)

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