For those of you who want to experience pristine Shanxi family courtyard homes of the wealthy then a day-trip from Pingyao to Qiao Jia Da Yuan 乔家大院 – The Qiao Family Estate.  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 15元. Bargain well and you’ll get it for 10元.

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 ‘foreigner’. Why? Because you simply do not visit this place unless you know the popular Chinese film ‘Raise the Red Lantern’. (more…)

I was walking down a small road in KeYi 珂溢, ShanXi province and quite possibly I’m the first foreigner  to visit this place .  Three teenagers were following me and talking about me.  From nowhere, one of them piped up..

“Welcome to Beijing”

Pingyao and it’s fine buildings were due to one main reason; Pingyao was the home of wealth in China.  It was the ‘central bank’ of China for two centuries.  It was thanks to this that the town prospered.  However, once it lost the status as the financial hub, the whole town became bankrupt.  I guess this is why the buildings remained as they did – the town simply (more…)

Pingyao 平遥

Why did 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. (more…)