Day 46: Pingyao (平遥) and Beijing (北京)

Touring the town
Charlotte spent the morning in museums which I passed on and instead just walked around the city some more. The town is filled with a ton of small museums that you pay one ticket price for and each time Charlotte went to a new one they would try and get her to hire them as a tour guide.  When she refused they would ask her why she was even coming then, because the museum isn't any good without a tour guide telling you stories.  She still refused and managed to have a good time.  After she was done I tried to use her ticket to get on the city wall, but they refused to believe I was a Taiwanese student like the ticket said, so Charlotte had to use it to get pictures of the city from above.

While walking around town I ran into preparations for a funeral, while I could not go in. I got some pictures of the flowers they were preparing

From 77 Days in China

City Streets

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

A Christian church in town

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

Funeral preparations

From 77 Days in China

Funeral flowers

Lunch and off to Beijing
We grabbed some more local food before heading to the bus station.  We had to take a 3 hour bus to another town (太原) where we would get a high speed train to Beijing.  Once we got on the train we just wished all Chinese transportation was like this.  Clean seats, free bottle of water and fast!  It was about 3 and a half hours for the 500 km trip, although Charlotte still complained that she drives faster

From 77 Days in China

Fried dumplings (平遥水煎包)

From 77 Days in China

A local special noodle (平遥烤咾咾)

From 77 Days in China

Going fast on a train

Getting to Beijing

It was big relief to know we made it to Beijing and we would be staying with a friend for a week, meaning no hotels and no moving around.  Before we got there though we had to get a cab and I was already happy we were in a big city when I saw a long line at the taxi stand.  Normally this would get me upset, but seeing Chinese people patiently wait in line was amazing and refreshing.  Then I wondered why there were no cabs.  Eventually about 10 cabs all came in at once and as soon as the cabs stopped the train station worker at the front opened the gate and allowed about 30 people out.  So now there were 30 people all fighting for 10 cabs.  Eventually more cabs came to get the other 20 people, then the process would start all over again.  We definitely knew then that we were still in China.