Dining Area at the Zhengjia International Youth Hostel 郑家客栈
With my appointment at Beijing cancelled, it was time for me to decide where to proceed next. I stil had some money left and I was considering leaving Beijing and moving on to a nearby town. But I needed to make sure that I would be able to come back and head back home. Upon some computation that night, I decided to push through. The next day, I head out to the Beijing West Railway Station to head out of the big city. My destination would be the ancient city of Pingyao 平遥 which is in Shanxi province 山西. I took the D2003 train to the capital city of Shanxi province which took my almost four hours to complete.
Zhengjia International Youth Hostel 郑家客栈
What I immediately noticed about Shanxi province was how much fractured the landscape was. There were a lot of excavation along the way and made it look like a mini-Grand Canyon. I would learn later that the province of Shanxi is rich in coal. The train ride was surprisingly full though it was still very comfortable. I got around to reading my book until we pulled over to Taiyuan. Taiyuan was no Beijing but it is still a progressive city. However, Taiyuan is not my destination and I would have to take another bus to the bus station where I can get a bus to Pingyao. It took me some time to orient myself and figure out where the bus station heading to Pingyao was, but once at the bus station, it was a breeze to board the bus as there were lots of buses going to the town.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/ZhengjiaInternationalYouthHostel.kmz} zoom=19]