Pingyao, China

After a very uncertain start to the day yesterday, trying to navigate our way around the massive fortress-like Beijing West Railway station, we caught our bullet train with minutes to spare and arrived four hours later in what looked like a new building site (in the middle of nowhere). It took us a while at Beijing West, being sent from entrance to exit, upstairs to downstairs, through security checks, then line up some more to collect tickets…but it worked! The train was excellent, more space than on our flight…it reached speeds of up to 300kph…way to go! The Ancient part of the city of Pingyao is surrounded by a high wall, with ramparts, turrets and holes to fire arrows through…it stretches for 6km. Reminded me so much of old favourite movies…Vikings, Knights, etc! We were planning on walking right around but construction work stopped us…it was fabulous and flat! But very hot amongst all the masonry. Not much English is spoken, but we are managing to be understood…and pictures of food with captions help us to avoid things like “bubble oil, cats ears or various donkey stews!”Amazing!