Four Days Are Enough

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

 ◆ Four Days Are Enough

If you enjoy four days off and would like to travel, here is my suggestion: You could go to PingYao in the centre of Shanxi Province. From Beijing, take train 605 at 23:23 and you will be there at 10:30 the next morning. Even if the little city has not yet become a major tourist stop, accommodation is easy to find and the prices are reasonable. You can have a very good meal for a surprisingly low cost. "PingYao Niu rou" (beef) and all kinds of "pasta" dishes with funny names like "kao laolao" awake you imagination and fill your stomach. PingYao, a Ming dynasty city, is still well preserved. It has been designated by the United Nations as a treasure of the world. It's a pleasure to walk in the streets and chat with the people sitting outside doing some artwork like paper cutting or embroidery. If you happen to stop somewhere to examine the architecture, they warmly invite you to visit their large houses with huge courtyards full of trees and flowers, hot peppers hanging to dry. The Guo family, people of high knowledge in Chinese medicine, painting, calligraphy and poetry, philosophy, etc., has been making a local "huang jiu" or yellow alcohol for 8 generations. The secret is now transmitted to the youngest one, a 11-year old boy and a talented calligrapher. It's also in PingYao that the first stocks (gu piao) were released in 1821. The place can be visited. At 8 or 10 km. from PingYao, riding a bike or sitting in a pedicab, you can easily reach Qixian where Zhang Yimou filmed "The Red Lanterns". Guides will explain to you (in Chinese) the history of this compound of unbelievable dimension, which was once a one-family property. Then, you can take a bus or a mini-bus to Taiyuan, and if you have time, to Wutai Shan, one of the five Buddhist mountains in China. But I will not tell you more and let you discover the beauty of the scenery all along the roads, such as the golden or green trees, according to the season, the dry corn husks in the fields or the tender emerald plants on a background of brown mountains. Shanxi is beautiful all year long. When I went there for the first time, I never thought it would be such a beautiful place, one of the many marvels of this country.