Pingyao, Datong and the Earthquake

M With our train tickets in hand we headed toward our train leaving Xi'an. We made it through the hordes of people at the train station to our train bound for Pingyao. We found our car and showed a guy our tickets and he let us on. When we got on we found the old looking train packed, and I mean really packed. We soon found out there are 4 types of tickets you can buy, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, seat, and standing room only. We pushed past the many people who had chosed the cheapest ticket option and found our seats which had people in them. After showing our tickets they moved without hessitation. Jesse then moved some other people's luggage around and lifted both our bags up onto the bagage holders above. The seats were a 3 person bench style. Everyone, yes everyone, on the train had been staring at us since we stepped foot onto the train. lol

The staring was by no means descreet either, just blatanly staring, as if they had never seen a white person before, which in all fairness many of them probably hadn't. I figured if they were going to stare at me I might as well introduce myself. So I put out my hand and said "Michelle" pointing to myself. Looking a little shocked and embarassed that the wierd looking white girl was talking to him the guy across from me shook my hand. I guestured asking him for his name and he finally gave it. Jes and I then introduced ourselves to the other people in our area. As the train began to move we could see that we were the only other tourists in the car. Aparently all tourists take the sleeper trains, which is why the guy who sold us the tickets looked so shocked when we said we would take seats. It was a squishy 8 hr train ride but well worth the experience. After introducing ourselves, Jes got out a magic book we bought in Thailand. He showed it to a little girl who looked about four. She was facinated, as were the adults. We showed her parents how to do the trick and in the end gave the book to the little girl.

Our new friends shared some cracker like things and gave Jes some alcohol that was pretty nasty. Not wanting to be rude he drank most of it, until everyone was distracted at one point and he dumped it out the window. We had to draw the line though when they offered us their chicken feet, complete with claws. We thought about it for a second, but just couldn't bring ourselves to try them. We shared some chocolates with them as they taught us some Mandrin words. They were pretty eager to teach us. I had the Olympic characters on my purse so we talked a little about that too and how the 2010 Olympics will be in Canada. At all major stops there were ladies selling instant noodle bowls out the window. We each had one, which seems to be a real staple in China. Not only do they sell food out the window, but they also throw all thier garbage out the window as the train is moving. We kept ours in a bag in attempts to be a good example. The ride was fairly bumpy, but it was an old looking train. At one point though the ride became even more bumpy, to the point that some bags fell down, ours included which smoked some poor guy in the head.

We would learn later that it was not the train or the tracks, but a tremor of the 7.9 degree earthquake that rocked China that afternoon. The most memorable experience was teaching them all how to play Suduku. Numbers are the same in Chinese as English and we played many many games. We would have 6 people all gathered around looking over our small Suduku book. Our new friends made sure we did not miss our stop and as we got off the train we waved good bye and felt like celebrities with everyone we had met waving back.

J We arrived in Pingyao late in the evening. Our hostel was to pick us up, but there was some misunderstanding on their part about 11am vs. 11pm so they did not show up. This was not a problem as there were about 6 tuk-tuk drivers who wanted to take us. So we boarded a tuk-tuk and after a minute we drove through an ancient gate and past the old walls of this picturesque city. Apparently no vehicles are suppose to be inside the city but the locals get away with driving golf carts around.

The next day we were shocked to discover that the earthquake we had heard about was a 7.9 magnitutde one, that had already killed some 22 thousand people (the number grew every 12 hrs unfornately). Our friends Dave and Stacey were in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, and only 75 km away from the epicentre, we prayed for their safety as they had obviously felt and seen the effects of the earthquake. We were some 600 km away in Xi'an yesterday and travelled another 450 km to Pingyao.. and even 1050km away the staff at our hostel had felt the earthquake.. but they thought it was a small local one, they had no idea of the magnitude of the earthquake.. and its dire effects on the people in Sichuan. We watched some of the local media but were dissapointed at the initial coverage, the goverment wanted to assure it's people that it had many people in monitoring stations staring at computer screens so they would know if another one was coming, finally there were some pictures of ground zero, but mostly just politicans talking, they preferred not to show the shock and horror that western media would have.

After breakfast we left to go exploring the city, we started just walking around enjoying the old buildings. There is a pass you can buy that gets you into all the historical buildings, but we felt it was too expensive so we were in the middle of doing our own tour when a man named Mr. Lui approched us. He showed us buisness cards from people from Austrailia, Germany, and the USA saying that he was a good guide and to go with him. For a fee he offered to give us a tour to places we would not be able to see with the pass. After bartering for a price we agreed to let him guide us for the rest of the day.

M Mr. Lui took us to see a hotel which was a typical old house in the courtyard style, then the inside of a typical local's home where the old woman sat us in front of the t.v. to show us the news regarding the earthquake. Then to a restaraunt that made hand made noodles for lunch. After lunch he took us to a childrens school. The kids were just comming back as they have a long break in the middle of the day before returning to school for the afternoon, they go back at 3pm and stay until 6 or 7 in the evening. We talked to then with the help of Mr. Lui about the earthquake that had happened the day before. We wrote some things on the black board as well which they mostly did not understand. Around the school yard is pictures of famous communist leaders such as Stalin and Mao. As the kids were playing we talked to Mr. Lui about how in Canada if there was a tragedy like the earthquake we would put our countries flag at half mass.

Hearing this he called a kid over and told him to put the school yard's flag at half mass. We protested saying it should be a teacher or someone who does that, but he didn't listen. Then when the teacher came she immediately got another kid to put the flag back up. lol In China you only lower the flag when the government tells you to, which they eventually did during a three day mourning period which started a week after the earthquake. Classes were starting and we saw kids running laps in almost army style around the courtyard. We then overheard an English class and thought we would go listen and see if the teacher would like some help from native English speakers. The teacher was reading sentences from a book and the kids in unison would repeat back what she said. This continued on, repetition and no understanding of what they were saying. Interestingly the teacher saw us through the window, she must have recognized us as foreigners (we were white!) but she continued reading her sentences and ignored us, so we left.

Mr. Lui then took us to another local's house. All the houses were very simple inside. There was also stacks of coal blocks just inside their courtyards that they share with a few families to heat thier houses. This particular lady had a satalite dish hidden in her yard. She said that they are not allowed to have satallite dishes in China, so she hides it. If it were on her roof she would get many channels, but this way she still gets about 30 extras. After saying goodbye to Mr. Lui we spent a relaxing evening at our hostel talking a lot about the earthquake to people. One lady at the hostel had family in the main area that was hit. She had been trying all day to get ahold of them and finally did. They had all been rescued and evacuated with minor injuries. Many many web sites including CNN, BBC, and most international news companies are blocked by the firewall set up by the government.

For some reason though the International Herald Tribute (a favorite of ours) was not blocked. We showed the staff the site and they learned about how big the earthquake really was. We had become quite frustrated watching the Chinese news reports, which generally showed little of the rescue efforts and too many pictures of beaurocrats. The top news story the day after was that the prime minister was on a plane headed to the quake site. In days to come though all tv stations would be showing actual footage of the earthquake zone, generally with footage of the army rescuing people. Unlike the Myanmar government, China allowed foreign aid, and moved huge resources to help the victims, however many people died simply because the buildings they were in were decrepant and old, and sadly, many were school children.

The next day we planned to do our blog, which was also not accessible through the government firewall, but Jes had found a way around it. Alas there was no power for most of the day. So we walked around some more, I bought a shirt, we played some badminton with rackets the hostel had, then broke out the travel Monopoly game to kill some time. We met a lady from Spain who we chatted with and later invited her to join us for dinner, the food at the hostel was good, although the kitchen was not onsite and probably was just some in some little old ladies place around the corner. We left later that evening on an overnight train to Datong.

Due to "the president of Hostelling International Europe" having booked his sleeper bed with the same group as us we had to move from our 1st level bunk to 3rd a level bunk. Sure he was old, but they guy was extremely arrogant. If you ever travel on the sleeper trains make sure you get the bottom bunk, and there are two good reasons why. Firstly, there is significantly more head room and sure you don't have to climb up, although once up your not moving so no big deal. The big reason though is the temperature, it was stifiling hot and even with the trains windows open (no A/C) we were sweating like crazy all night, while "Mr. President" closed the window beside him as he was too cold. Grrrr.

J After almost missing our stop we arrived in Datong at 5am. Again our hotel was to pick us up and again there was noone waiting. So we dodged the calls from taxi drivers and start walking, following the directions we have written down.. and not a block away we stumble upon the place. Unfortunately, being just after 5am the reception staff hasn't arrived yet, and we end up killing an hour in the lobby hanging out with the security and cleaning staff. At about 6am they allow us to checkin (praise God) and after seeing our room we jump in bed for some much needed sleep.

We head off to a tourist office at 8am, hoping to catch a 9 or 10 am tour for the day. We had read about a government tourist agency that ran daily tours to the two big attractions in the area. Apparently CITS used to be run by the government but we're pretty sure it was now being run by con artists as we were told noone else was signed up to go on the tour that day (really) and that we would have to pay to have some taxi driver 200 quay to take us to the sights, and just pay full fare when we got there. Not to mention we wouldn't have a guide, which we really wanted. So we told the guy at CITS we would think about it, as we had been approached by a gentleman on the street that seemed to speak some English. We found out later his name is Simon.

Well much to our surprise the taxi driver who was working with the CITS guy starts following us, and when we approached Simon on the street they start arguing with each other. We call this guy from CITS "angry man", as he's truly was angry. Simon tells us he may be in some trouble because angry man has connections with the police, and we happen to be standing in front of a police station. And it is better if we leave. So we told Simon we may call him later, and we walk off to kill some time and see if anyone else is willing to take us for the day at a cheaper price. As we walk around the train station and start talking with some of the guys there.. guess who we find is following us, yup, angry man! So although we get one guy who agrees to take us for 160 we decide to stick with Simon as he can speak English and the rest can't. We are also now fed up with angry man following us so we hightail it out of the area and duck into a restaurant two blocks away. Luckily there is no sign of angry man. We have some breakfast (yum chinese food for breakfast), and then we head back to our hotel. We use the phone at the grocery store next door to call Simon on his cell phone and he picks us up a minute later.

Simon agrees to take us for the day for 200 quay (he wouldn't budge on the price), but we get a driver and him and he agrees to take us to 4 different sights. The first stop is the nine dragon screen, then to some old man living in a cave, then to the famous hanging monestary, and finally the Yungang caves, also known as the cave of 1000 Buddhas.


M Simon gave us history while at the nine dragon screen/gate, and really acted as a tour guide for us. The gate was over 600 years old, is the most ancient of them in China, was apparently made by the son of the 1st Emporor, and is actually 3x bigger then the more famous one in Beijing.

From Daton we headed out and as Jes mentioned we made a stop to see some cave where people live to this day. Although there are not many people who live in these caves there are a few, and have been for hundreds of years. There was one old man who the cab companies have a deal with. He lets tourists come inside his home, and the cab company rewards him buy buying him a t.v. He was all smiles and showed us his tiny one room cave where he lived with a tv and wires etc. to hook it all up with. Then we headed on to the hanging monestary. Amazing is the only words that describe it.

Simon then took us to a traditional place for lunch encouraging us not to waste our money at the many food places just outside the hanging monestary which are overpriced for the tourists. We learned all about real China from him as we sat chatting. His real passion was telling us about the coal factories and the many deaths that are covered up within. They get people from poor villages to come and work in the mines. If anyone dies the company must pay a large fine enforced by the government, but if nobody knows that the person is dead, because all their family knows is that thier loved one is working in one of hundreds of coal mines, then they do not need to claim it. When there is a large accident that the government may find out about they will generally say 2 or 3 people died, when in reality the death toll could be a dozen or more people. Simon grew up in a small village, and informed us that he know of many families whose husbands or son's left to work in the mines, and they have not seen them for 10 or 15 years. He explained some other corruptions as well to us that we would have never learned about had we simply taken the government spondered tours. (such as angry man)

After a leisurely lunch we rushed to the Yungang caves (also called the 1000 buddha caves), as we had spent a little too long chatting.

We walked around looking at the ancient sculptures, some of them just tiny (hence the 100,000 buddha images or more) and some were simply huge and amazing. Despite the fact we had to run and put up a fight to be allowed in we felt we had plenty of time to look at most of the caves, and we played a game of making sure we were far enough ahead of the tour groups so we didn't have to deal with them getting in our pictures or throwing elbows at us. When we felt we had seen enough we finally headed back to the city with Simon and our driver. We had them drop us off at the train staion so we could grab tickets for the trip to Beijing.

Datong's train station was equally as crazy as Xian's, but here nobody spoke English. We were extremely glad that Simon wrote in Mandrin for us what we wanted including what to ask for as a backup if our first choice was full. With our paper in hand it was easy to get tickets for the next day to Beijing. We headed back to our hotel and crashed as we had to be up early the next day.