SHANXI SHORT FACTS:

CAPITAL: TAIYUAN -太原

POPULATION: 35 million

AREA: 156,000 sq km

PLACES VISITED: Pingyao, Qiao Jia Da Yuan, Datong, Hunyuan

This is not going to be a very kind review and so I must say sorry to the wonderful people of Shanxi, except for those people who have learnt only two phrases of English; 'Hello' and 'F*** you' .

Going to Shanxi is like going to Shanghai or Guangdong - they have their own language which in this case is jin. They revert to that when they realise you understand putonghua.

The whole province is basically a mine! If it were a place of real natural beauty such as Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan then I'd say, 'Go now before they dig it all away'. But it's not.

Apart from Hunyuan, we visted Taiyuan, Pingyao and Datong, the latter being a former capital of China during the Northern Wei Dynasty - AD386 - 534. Our main destination was Pingyao (平遥), a UNESCO-listed town which combines authentic Ming, Qing and 'Mao' dynasties. The biggest difference between Pingyao and say, Lijiang or Dali (see Yunnan) is that as of 2007 it is still original though they have started the rebuild and what a shame that will be.

The Journey:

The train journey wasn't entirely uneventful. One girl with whom we shared a compartment wrote some home truths about the service in the 'Passenger Comments' book. When the head conductor read them she was shouting around the carriage demanding to know who was responsible. The 'culprit' owed-up and the conductor demanded that she retract the statements written. She refused - why else have such a book - and the conductor took the book away.

At one stage, our compartment (6 berth) was crammed full of one guy's mates all wanting an ogle at Tanya. They had the nerve to say that we, foreigners, should be in the hard seat section so that we can interact with Chinese. At that point I climbed down from my middle bunk as stated that this compartment was more full that the hard seating section. The message was understood and quickly we were back to normal.

Pingyao 平遥

Why were we going to Pingyao? The simple answer is that there is a great Chinese film called Raise the Red Lantern which both Tanya & I love. Shanxi is famous throughout China because of the fancy, courtyard-style family homes and this film was shot at one such home, the home of the Qiao family. That's why we went! As an aside to that, Pingyao is said to have the only complete and original city wall in China albeit, at only 6kms long it's by no means the largest.

Outside the city walls, the modern city is quite dreadful, filthy, cheap and ... well, it reminded of Suihua! Inside the walls it is quite exceptional; clean, cared for and costly.

Addendum July 29, 2007 - I've just read a post on the Lonely Planet web site where a 'Chinese' person made the statement, 'Pingyao is simple a remodeled town and is to be avoided'. I have seen first-hand how many Chinese live day-to-day with their 'eyes closed' and this person obviously never went to Pingyao. Remodeled? On what?, I ask. It's possibly the most original old-town in China.

Qiao Jia Da Yuan 乔家大院 - The Qiao family estate

OK, so we're at a tourist attraction, a big one at that but all the Chinese are pointing at us and uttering the standard waiguoren which basically means 'foriegner'. Why? Because you simply do not visit this place unless you know the popular Chinese film 'Raise the Red Lantern'.

The place was packed and yet I managed to get a number of photos that would give the impression that we had hired the entire place out for the day - I've acquired a knack for doing this in China. I even managed to find a room that contained a solitary lantern. I shouted to Tanya to get her backside in here asap and we raised the red lantern. I'm still wondering why that lantern was in that room.

We endured the hoardes of groups being led around by a flag-bearing tour guide for about 3 hours. We examined every room, nook and cranny and even tried to venture into forbidden territory and then called it a day.

Getting back to Pingyao proved to be a nightmare! Every taxi driver outside thought his 'numbers had come in' and was kindly offering us the chance of a ride for a mere 60 US dollars, more than the average local earns in a month! We politely told them to dream and then spoke to the police at the roadside who were promoting safe driving. The buses they stopped on our behalf were full and after a couple of hours we jumped in a car with a few chinese people and paid the same as a bus ticket.

For those heading to Pingyao, Qiao Jia Da Yuan is well-worth a visit: Take the bus from the train station but don't pay more than 15yuan.

Datong 大同

We were very excited by our trip to Datong because our coach was a VIP Bus and neither Tanya nor I had been on one before. It was luxury; reclining leather seats, top deck and because at the bus station proper the bus was empty, we took the front seats for a spectacular view. I was like a kid in a toy shop! We had our food and drink and I had my camera poised in case we saw an accident or anything spectacular.

And we did! Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture because I was laughing too much. Tanya squealed when she spotted two zebra at the side of the freeway... Fake zebra she took as real!

I'm glad I can write about the bus journey because the city which, by the way is the second largest in the province is absolutely nothing to write home about. It was clean by Chinese city standards and almost spotless compared to Ha'erbin but nevertheless, soulless.

It was still the holiday period (called wu yi or 五一 - May 1st) so the hotels were packed and those with rooms wanted to charge the earth for something I wouldn't even ... Well, let's just say I'd be more at home in a bivvy by a lakeside.

We were walking down the street and a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted a room. Turns out she'd converted her apartment into seven bedrooms (communal bath / toilet) but it was spotless and cheap, and she turned out to be a really pleasant and helpful lady.

The city centres on Red Flag Square. It's smaller than a football pitch and it took us 15 minutes to spot the flag! After walking down the main street searching for anything of interest we called it a day and went for a drink in the Habitat bar. According to the Lonely Planet it's the place to hang-out. Utter codswallop. It's over-priced and full of cockroaches and even they must find the place dirty because one of them decided to take a bath in Tanya's martini! Quite literally though, there was nothing else to do.

Hunyuan 浑圆

The only reason one would visit Datong is to take a day-trip out to here, Hunyuan to see the Hanging Monastery. It is a huge attraction but when we arrived, the Chinese were more interested in wanting to take photos of Tanya than of the monastery.

There were simply thousands of tourists here and the steps up to the monastery are single file. Due to weight restrictions they only allow so many people to be queuing and we quickly gathered that we'd spend 5 hours in the line for 10 minutes inside. Tanya wasn't feeling her best and so we decided the best view was from the ground. Speaking to locals later in the afternoon confirmed that our choice was the correct choice.