Pingyao

Much has been said about the way China has been catapulted into the 21st century by the Olympics and the last two decades of incredible economic growth. But travelling outside Beijing it's clear how much further there is to go. The first stop on my rural China travels was a little town called Pingyao. It's protected by UNESCO and has remained virtually untouched for the last 200 years. Now it's mostly set up for tourists but once was a thriving banking centre. It's just what you imagine a Chinese town to look like. Note the Donkey in the foreground!



The kids in China are among the cutest you'll find anywhere and as they can only say 'hello' and I can only say 'nihao' we share a special bond.



I hired a bike and rode around town - easy in Pingyao because there are no cars but I don't think I'm game to try it anywhere else where I might get squashed. I did a circuit of the walls and caught up with some locals. There's a lot of sitting in China - sitting playing cards, sitting smoking, sitting shouting. These men are in the sitting contemplating category.



On my last day I decided to catch a public bus out to an old mansion 40 minutes from town. I swear I must have been the only westerner to ever take this particular route judging by the stares I got. It was easy enough to buy a ticket from the station and the bus left the depot with about 20 people on board. Once outside the gates, another 20 people got on who had obviously purchased the discounted, not so official ticket. Managed to reached my destination - the Chao family compound where they filmed 'Raise the Red Lantern'. On the return journey, I decided to take a taxi. The 'taxi' ended up being the car of the women who sold the water outside the gates. Here we are.