PINGYAO ANCIENT CITY DAY TWO: CITY WALLS.

I Get up at about 8am and have a relaxing walk to the South Gate where I try to find out how to visit the City Walls. 

I pass another procession, which I guess to be an old ritual. They occur regularly.(I gather it's called a Gong procession)

There is a ticket office (you have to buy a ticket for all the attractions in Pingyao for RMB130) but it's closed, so I go and have a leisurely Western breakfast at Sakura cafe which does a reasonable English Breakfast. I decide to walk around aimlessly for a bit, then return to the South Gate to buy a ticket for the attractions, temples, museums etc. Not all of these appeal to me but I may as well make the most of my visit. I find to my delight I can walk the length of the wall in a circuit like Xian so I set off: it takes about an hour and 40 minutes to complete the walk, and I actually get tired of photographing watchtowers and pagodas.

South Gate of the Wall.

Old Rickshaw by the turret.

Medieval cannon used in battle.

 The view from the wall is charming.This is South Street seen from the top.

Watchtowers along the Wall

Gate of the Confucius Temple.

There is a real flavour of the old Silk Road.( a network of trading routes between Europe and Asia, of which Xian was the last stop)

This sculpture of the watchmen smoking together  gives a feel for the age.

An old house in the hutong.

This is North Street from the North Gate; I'm half-way around by now.

Round window of a house nearby.

Watchtowers as I draw near the South Gate again:  I walked the opposite way around to my walk in Xian, this is anticlockwise. last time I did it clockwise.

Rooftops in  the hutong.

I complete the walk and fetch up in the western cafe and bar where I have a burger and fries. I decide to relax for the remainder of the day and sample some local hotpot later.

Many Chinese people come up to me and say “Hello” as I walk around. Clearly I'm a sight they're not used to. (I keep seeing lots of Chinese on the trains and buses always carrying bags of milk and yoghurt cartons: seemingly they exchange these as gifts during Chinese New Year, how bizarre!)

I feel very tired so go and have a sleep in the afternoon. Cursing my own foolishness in not having brought ear plugs as I can always hear the fans from the showers working around me, and the Chinese love to shower! I get the feeling there are whole families in some of the rooms.

I try the hotpot and it's not only expensive but vegetarian and not very appetising . After two helpings of dumplings and one hotpot I give up on local food and decide to be a Philistine eating Western food as I did in Xian. I can get plenty of half-decent Chinese food in Beijing.