Life in China: Final month in China - East China: Xi'an, Pingyao

I did leave Shanghai as there were many more places to see. I went to Xi’an where the Terracotta Warriors are.

one of the 3 hangers that protect the terracotta warriors

soldiers and horses

These were pretty impressive, partly due to how many there are but also because it’s hard to fathom how the archeologists dug through the rocks to find them, many being kept intact.

how did they not break them when excavating?

it was pretty hot there!

Apparently they were discovered when a local man was digging a well and came across one of the soldiers in 1974, They are still excavating today, hard to imagine how many more they’ll find.

excavation site

some of the many soldiers

From Xi’an I was back on the train to travel to Pingyao. I was on a ‘hard’ sleeper this time but to be honest this was still comfortable (still a mattrass and a duvet), the main difference being that a ‘soft’ sleeper has 4 berths in a cabin that closes and the ‘hard’ sleepers are in an open carriage and have 6 berths. I didn’t enjoy being in the top one – where you can’t sit up without hitting your head! The conductors switch the lights off about half an hour after the train leaves and people keep pretty quiet (apart from the odd snorers…). You also get woken up about half an hour before your stop you there's little risk of missing your station.

Pingyao gate

Pingyao is ‘the best preserved old towns in the North’. Southwest China seems to have more of these, I guess the Northeast was modernised earlier. Pingyao is a walled city and you can walk along the walls. I stayed inside and preferred to walk along the streets, stopping at various street food stalls along the way.

vats of vinegar

A local produce they made lots of in this area was vinegar and you could see vats of this in many of the shops.

city performers

Most evenings the town put on a variety of performances. Sometimes it was individuals performing.

drummer

decorative Pingyao

I also visited the 'Wang courtyard residence' (a luxurious residence built during 1762-1811 by the descendants of the Wang Family, one of the Four Families of the Qing Dynasty in Shanxi Province). There were many courtyards and buildings as well as some pretty artwork.