Another early morning and bus down the mountain. I could smell the breaks on the bus burning from the full capacity bus of people going downhill. I was heading to the city of Taiyuan first.
Almost 5 hours later, I arrived at the East Taiyuan bus station. My book says take a bus to the train station. I waited around but no bus was coming. I noticed some people yelling out "Train Station, 2 yuan" and I understood their Chinese. After I while I took the deal in these private taxis. Mine was actually a car with three wheels.
I got two tickets. One from Taiyuan to Pingyao. And a second from Taiyuan to Beijing. The second one ended up being a seat in an all night train, not ideal.
The train from Taiyuan to Pingyao was a nightmare. The most crowded one I’ve taken yet. I did get a numbered seat, but there were people squeezed up and down the aisle, so many bags under my seat I couldn’t place my feet flat on the floor, and sweating because I had all my coldest weather clothes on. When they pushed carts through the aisle with food, everyone was pressed against my face and side. So for two hours it wasn’t a fun ride. I noticed this could be a good opportunity for pickpockets, so I moved my wallet from the aisle side to the window side of my pants. At my stop, I was the only person getting off, so I had to push my way off the train, nearly stepping on people sitting on the floor. There was barely any space on the floor for me to step, just all people.
I arrived at the ancient town of Pingyao. Out of the station a tricycle driver approached me and tried to get me to stay at a particular hostel. I ended up running away from him and he chased me for a while on his tricycle. I think he had the last laugh though because I ended up getting a little lost trying to find my destination. All the buildings in this town are hundreds of years old and look similar. There are no street signs, so I took some wrong turns on my supposed to be 1.5km walk. I did have a map and I came across a tourist attraction place, got the name and matched it up to the map.
The hostel I stayed at was pretty nice, a traditional style building. I had the choice of a 3 bed dorm, 5 bed, and 7 bed, but they were all empty! I chose the cheapest one.