5 - 6 June: 平遥 Pingyao, Central Shanxi Province: Part 2 of 2
Food in Pingyao
One problem that pervades all of China is the fact that all the shops copy one another. What this means if, when you arrive in an area - all the souvenir shops have the same stuff, all the bakeries cook the same foodstuffs and if a dish ends up being popular e.g. banana pancakes - then ALL the restaurants will sell it.
Pingyao went one step further. Almost all the larger restaurants had identical menus, with identical images of their food.
Err... yummy? :)
On our first night, we dumped our bags and went looking for food at around 10.30 or so - we were very lucky to find a restaurant that was still open. What was a bit scary thought was that the fan looked as though it was about to fall off the ceiling and cut off everyone's head :D
What was weird was that while they gave us the little styrofoam containers, they didn't close properly so they gave us those separately and then gave us the food itself in plastic bags :D We ended up sitting on the spare bed and using the little plastic bags as bowls as we ate our dinner
On the Saturday, after our Wall Walk, we had buckwheat noodles fried in chilli and these are called Pingyao Dumplings - pan fried.
They look a bit like a cross between a 锅铁 (pot-sticker) and a shaomai dumpling.
These were the strange mantou-like buns - they were kind of hollowed out underneath. I forgot to take a photo, but what I mean is that rather than being lumps of solid dough - when you look at the bottom, you realise they're just relatively thin steamed bread shells
The locals call these Pingyao "月饼" - Pingyao Moon Cakes. They're crispy and hollow - inside, they're spread with a very thin layer of a kind of sweet toffee-like substance and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. It's very nice but very insubstantial :)
This is called Kao Lao Lao 烤姥姥 and it's a kind of fried, thick noodles. They were spicy and very nice.
One day for breakfast, we went to a nearby youth hostel. I swear I will never sleep in another youth hostel, but the food in sucn places is usually quite good
The Canadian decided to have pancakes. The menu labelled them clearly as 'French pancakes' so that North Americans didn't get distressed/upset/angry when they saw that they were more like crepes than the thicker North American cakes to which they're accustomed :)
In Australia we have 'rock cakes' that are a very hard, lumpy biscuit that is so named because it LOOKS like a rock. In Pingyao, they have 石头饼 Stone Biscuits that are made using stones :) Here are some hot stones
A light pancake is placed on the hot stones
It's covered with more hot stones
It ends up looking like this:
The First Temple Visited
Pingyao temples have Giant Incense.
And circular gateways
This guy looked soooooooo grumpy
Deeply giant fire extinguisher - and ubiquitous bags of sand
Peeking from behind a drum
Martial Arts Museum
We went to the martial arts museum.
Training area. There were some tourists who despite the signs saying "Do Not Touch" were going around trying to pull all of the weapons out and wave them around.
市楼 Town Tower
We went to the Town Tower. It wasn't included in our entry ticket, but at only RMB5 it was a bargain. The passage was very narrow. And steep, too!
But worth it for the view
Tourists - and BeijingPingyao Belly!
Confucius Temple
We visited the Confucius Temple.
Some wish cards.
The Canadian had become increasingly obsessed with giant incense sticks and was convinced that the larger the incense stick, the more likely you were to get your wish. Smaller sticks were RMB30, the largest sticks were RMB300!!!
Here's a man handling the giant incense
Here's giant incense and wish cards
This pool at the temple was lovely. People threw coins down
Close-up
Pretty courtyard
Nice view from a building at the temple
Animals of Pingyao
As usual, the Canadian kept his eye out for the mangy cats of the area.
This tiny little ball of mangy fur was a kitten that we encountered that was lurking precariously on one of the main streets.
Despite its manginess, the Canadian loved it and wanted to keep it!
Proud cat.
Doggies.
Grumpy, grouchy, sleepy doggy.
Funny Signs
Hmmm. What does this mean?
Lots of signs saying: "Eat, drink, stay/eating, drinking, staying". Sounded kind of funny ... like you could never leave or something
More service/serrice, pay less? Sounds like working in a law firm!
Ouch! Except it's talking about Chinese paper-cuttings and not paper cuts per se:)
More ouch! Stone carvings IN my eyes would hurt no matter how beautiful they are!
You've been warned
Even the Chinese for this one has been kind of mysterious
Awwww
While there were a lot of signs that had variations of this in Chinese - i.e please don't climb over etc.
The English translations had some interesting variations
Near Pingyao Town
We were taken on a trip to 镇国寺 Zhen Guo Temple and 乔家大院 Qiao Family Courtyard. During our trip, we saw a dairy cow being transported.
镇国寺 Zhen Guo Temple
The Zhen Guo Temple isn't far outside of Pingyao. It's incredibly small now - most of it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Despite being very run-down, it's still quite charming.
This poor guy looks so distressed :)
We thought we'd seen everything until I found a Bell Tower on the map so we went back to inspect. It was kind of hidden away, but we found the door to the tower
Alas, the Bell Tower was missing something rather important
So to entertain ourselves and not make the staff to feel so bad (we were 2 out of only 4 tourists that were there), I peered through a doorway
We sat in a courtyard and listened to my iPhone play music. Then the Canadian took photos of our shoes :)
乔家大院 Qiao Family Courtyard
OK this place is very famous and movies and tv-series have been filmed there, including Raise The Red Lantern, but it's a major stop on the domestic tourist route which = nightmare.
Before we even got to the courtyard, we ran the gauntlet of dozens and dozens of vendors - also signs saying 'public toilets with flushing water!' Errr.
This cranky child is not impressed
It was all very well when a courtyard looked like this
Even ok when it kind of looked like this
But then wave upon wave of domestic tourists would come crowding through in a rush of baseball caps, elbows, cameras and megaphones. The jostling can be unbearable as are the guides blaring out their rapid-fire commentaries before rushing their flocks off to the next sight. Chinese tours and tour groups can be awful - no chance to linger and enjoy, the participants are herded around like sheep and they can be incredibly annoying to other tourists who just want to enjoy things ...
We went trying to find places that look like this, but no sooner had we found peace, but the next onslaught of domestic tourists would arrive
We found a little bit of respite in the garden before fleeing the Qiao Family Courtyard
The Canadian's pale Canadian skin got horribly burnt!!!
One problem that pervades all of China is the fact that all the shops copy one another. What this means if, when you arrive in an area - all the souvenir shops have the same stuff, all the bakeries cook the same foodstuffs and if a dish ends up being popular e.g. banana pancakes - then ALL the restaurants will sell it.
Pingyao went one step further. Almost all the larger restaurants had identical menus, with identical images of their food.
Err... yummy? :)
On our first night, we dumped our bags and went looking for food at around 10.30 or so - we were very lucky to find a restaurant that was still open. What was a bit scary thought was that the fan looked as though it was about to fall off the ceiling and cut off everyone's head :D
What was weird was that while they gave us the little styrofoam containers, they didn't close properly so they gave us those separately and then gave us the food itself in plastic bags :D We ended up sitting on the spare bed and using the little plastic bags as bowls as we ate our dinner
On the Saturday, after our Wall Walk, we had buckwheat noodles fried in chilli and these are called Pingyao Dumplings - pan fried.
They look a bit like a cross between a 锅铁 (pot-sticker) and a shaomai dumpling.
These were the strange mantou-like buns - they were kind of hollowed out underneath. I forgot to take a photo, but what I mean is that rather than being lumps of solid dough - when you look at the bottom, you realise they're just relatively thin steamed bread shells
The locals call these Pingyao "月饼" - Pingyao Moon Cakes. They're crispy and hollow - inside, they're spread with a very thin layer of a kind of sweet toffee-like substance and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. It's very nice but very insubstantial :)
This is called Kao Lao Lao 烤姥姥 and it's a kind of fried, thick noodles. They were spicy and very nice.
One day for breakfast, we went to a nearby youth hostel. I swear I will never sleep in another youth hostel, but the food in sucn places is usually quite good
The Canadian decided to have pancakes. The menu labelled them clearly as 'French pancakes' so that North Americans didn't get distressed/upset/angry when they saw that they were more like crepes than the thicker North American cakes to which they're accustomed :)
In Australia we have 'rock cakes' that are a very hard, lumpy biscuit that is so named because it LOOKS like a rock. In Pingyao, they have 石头饼 Stone Biscuits that are made using stones :) Here are some hot stones
A light pancake is placed on the hot stones
It's covered with more hot stones
It ends up looking like this:
The First Temple Visited
Pingyao temples have Giant Incense.
And circular gateways
This guy looked soooooooo grumpy
Deeply giant fire extinguisher - and ubiquitous bags of sand
Peeking from behind a drum
Martial Arts Museum
We went to the martial arts museum.
Training area. There were some tourists who despite the signs saying "Do Not Touch" were going around trying to pull all of the weapons out and wave them around.
市楼 Town Tower
We went to the Town Tower. It wasn't included in our entry ticket, but at only RMB5 it was a bargain. The passage was very narrow. And steep, too!
But worth it for the view
Tourists - and BeijingPingyao Belly!
Confucius Temple
We visited the Confucius Temple.
Some wish cards.
The Canadian had become increasingly obsessed with giant incense sticks and was convinced that the larger the incense stick, the more likely you were to get your wish. Smaller sticks were RMB30, the largest sticks were RMB300!!!
Here's a man handling the giant incense
Here's giant incense and wish cards
This pool at the temple was lovely. People threw coins down
Close-up
Pretty courtyard
Nice view from a building at the temple
Animals of Pingyao
As usual, the Canadian kept his eye out for the mangy cats of the area.
This tiny little ball of mangy fur was a kitten that we encountered that was lurking precariously on one of the main streets.
Despite its manginess, the Canadian loved it and wanted to keep it!
Proud cat.
Doggies.
Grumpy, grouchy, sleepy doggy.
Funny Signs
Hmmm. What does this mean?
Lots of signs saying: "Eat, drink, stay/eating, drinking, staying". Sounded kind of funny ... like you could never leave or something
More service/serrice, pay less? Sounds like working in a law firm!
Ouch! Except it's talking about Chinese paper-cuttings and not paper cuts per se:)
More ouch! Stone carvings IN my eyes would hurt no matter how beautiful they are!
You've been warned
Even the Chinese for this one has been kind of mysterious
Awwww
While there were a lot of signs that had variations of this in Chinese - i.e please don't climb over etc.
The English translations had some interesting variations
Near Pingyao Town
We were taken on a trip to 镇国寺 Zhen Guo Temple and 乔家大院 Qiao Family Courtyard. During our trip, we saw a dairy cow being transported.
镇国寺 Zhen Guo Temple
The Zhen Guo Temple isn't far outside of Pingyao. It's incredibly small now - most of it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Despite being very run-down, it's still quite charming.
This poor guy looks so distressed :)
We thought we'd seen everything until I found a Bell Tower on the map so we went back to inspect. It was kind of hidden away, but we found the door to the tower
Alas, the Bell Tower was missing something rather important
So to entertain ourselves and not make the staff to feel so bad (we were 2 out of only 4 tourists that were there), I peered through a doorway
We sat in a courtyard and listened to my iPhone play music. Then the Canadian took photos of our shoes :)
乔家大院 Qiao Family Courtyard
OK this place is very famous and movies and tv-series have been filmed there, including Raise The Red Lantern, but it's a major stop on the domestic tourist route which = nightmare.
Before we even got to the courtyard, we ran the gauntlet of dozens and dozens of vendors - also signs saying 'public toilets with flushing water!' Errr.
This cranky child is not impressed
It was all very well when a courtyard looked like this
Even ok when it kind of looked like this
But then wave upon wave of domestic tourists would come crowding through in a rush of baseball caps, elbows, cameras and megaphones. The jostling can be unbearable as are the guides blaring out their rapid-fire commentaries before rushing their flocks off to the next sight. Chinese tours and tour groups can be awful - no chance to linger and enjoy, the participants are herded around like sheep and they can be incredibly annoying to other tourists who just want to enjoy things ...
We went trying to find places that look like this, but no sooner had we found peace, but the next onslaught of domestic tourists would arrive
We found a little bit of respite in the garden before fleeing the Qiao Family Courtyard
The Canadian's pale Canadian skin got horribly burnt!!!