It’s just a few shots of us rambling through one of the tourist streets, but we think it still captures the laid back approach that seems to be unique to Pingyao.  Not sure what the quality will be like.  We shot it in HD but not sure how youtube handles this type of media.

The smog of Xi’an and change in temperature from the south has given us both pretty bad colds, confining us to our beds for most of today.  Having nice residence in which to laze about will no doubt aid the healing process.  It rather difficult to write posts when your brain feels like jelly!

Energy levels permitting, tomorrow we plan on visiting Pingyao’s many temples, so expect more from here soon.

New addition: Davey’s ramblings, just press play below!

Pingyao was a thriving merchant town during the Ming dynasty and centre of a large network of trade that extended from the south of China to Mongolia.  Local businessmen had become so successful by the Qing dynasty that they created the country’s first banks and cheques, in order to facilitate the transfer of enormous amounts of silver from one place to another.  The city fell into poverty in the 20th century, and thankfully, without the cash to modernise, it’s streets have since gone unchanged.

With a movie-set charm, it has obviously become a major tourist trap mobbed with megaphone-wielding tour groups.  To escape the souvenir shops and Japanese paparazzi, we hired a couple of bicycles and got to see its 21^st century wealth – dusty cobbled streets and architecture more akin to life in imperial China.

UNESCO World Heritage Site #11