China - Pingyao (27.09.2013)

A little movie before to take the train this evening.

China - Pingyao (25.09.2013)

Today, I walked around the streets of the ancient city of Pingyao.
I met by chance a guy from Belarussia who is working in Krakow in Poland.
We went on the top of the wall surrounding the ancient city of Pingyao.
Normally it costs 120 yuan (about 15€), but we went there for free.
In fact, yesterday, he found the way to go through a hotel but he didn't succeed.
Today, we tried together and we succeeded.
We took a lot of photos.
Then we walked together all the afternoon and he taught me how to negociate the prices with Chinese in the streets.
It was a really good day...

China - Pingyao (24.09.2013)

I arrived in Pingyao yesterday afternoon.
It took me 1h45 to go to my youth hostel from the railway station.
I asked to the policemen to each crossroad to find my way.

I met a boy from Holland at the youth hostel.
His girlfriend was sick.
She went to the hospital.
They discovered a bacteria certainly contained in the food.

This morning I went to the railway station to buy my train ticket to go to Xi'an on Friday evening.
It took me 20 minutes to go there with a map :)
In fact, It was just right next.

Pingyao is a really nice place.
My youth hostel is located in the heart of ancient city of Pingyao.
The ancient city of Pingyao is inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage.

China - Datong (22.09.2013)

Three new housemates arrived this evening. One boy from the south of China. One boy from Canada and one girl from Israel. The Chinese boy invited me to eat with him the famous noodles from Datong.

China - Datong (21.09.2013)

Today, I went to the Hanging/Suspended Monastery/Temple and to the Yungang Grottoes.

The Hanging/Suspended Monastery/Temple was built in the VII century on a mountainside at 50m height.
It is unique in China.
It is located 65km east of Datong.
It was really impressive.

The Yungang Grottoes present the first traces of Buddhist sculpture in China.
There are about twenty grottoes with Buddha inside.
It is located 16 km west of Datong.
It was really wonderful.

Tomorrow, I'm going to walk in the streets of Datong.

China - Datong (20.09.2013)

I arrived safely in Datong.

The night train was really safe and clean.
There are four checkpoints when you take the train:
- At the entrance of the train station: passport, visa and ticket
- At the entrance of the station platform: ticket only
- When you get on in the train: ticket only
- When you are in the train: ticket only
The staff clean and sweep the wagon before each train station.

When I arrived in Datong, I didn't want to take cab or bus in order to save money.
So I asked my way to the people in the street. It took 1h30 to find my youth hostel.

Tomorrow, I'm going to visit the Yungang grottoes and the Hanging temple (Xuankongsi).

Story of the day:
While I waited my train, I met a chinese guy from Baotou (north of China).
We used a live traduction tool on his mobile phone to communicate.

China - Beijing (19.09.2013)

Yesterday, I went to the Bell and Drum Tower and to the National Stadium.
I'm leaving Beijing this evening to go to Datong with the night train.

You can see all my photos to this address: http://frelon.ath.cx/photo

China - Jinshanling (17.09.2013)

Today, I went to visit the Great Wall of China in Jinshanling (154 km).
It took 3 hours to go there and 3 hours to come back to Beijing because of the traffic jams.
The Chinese drivers are really amazing. To resume, it's a mess. Everyone do what he wants.
I was in a group of tourists and I met few people:
- A German girl who came to to Beijing from Moscow with the trans siberian train.
- An Indian girl who works in Hô Chi Minh (Vietnam). She gave me her email address.
- A Swedish couple
Despite of the cloudy weather, it was really beautiful.