Once again, we're in a hostel cafe enjoying some coffee to warm up and updating all of you. We're now in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. The walled town features Confucius' residence (a sprawling 500-room mansion), one of the best preserved Confucian temples, and the Confucian family tomb - a walled forest filled with cemeteries new and old.
We came to Qufu from Kaifeng, about which we'll blog later in the day or week. Kaifeng is one of the ancient capitals of China, and was the seat of the Song dynasty. Today it's a bustling modern Chinese city, with all of the good and bad that accompanies modernization. But, as we said, we'll blog about Kaifeng in the next day or two as we get our pictures uploaded.
We're both worn down from traveling and a little sick - the air in Pingyao was so thick with coal dust that you could almost chew it. Nevertheless, Pingyao was mesmerizing.
Pingyao's history goes back almost 3000 years, and the intact city walls are nearly 1000 years old. The architecture and layout of the city within the walls has remained unchanged since the Ming and Qing dynasties - going back nearly 400 years.
The best part of Pingyao was simply wandering the winding alleyways or exploring narrow side-streets. Within the walled city, there was no car traffic, no loud music, very few neon signs (aside from the tourist traps), and plenty of thousands-year old temples and residences.
We feel the best way to describe Pingyao is with the following slideshow we put together. We hope you enjoy it. (Watch below or use this link for a larger and better version on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kggDjmi6wwQ&feature=youtu.be).
As our trip winds down, we'll get another post up of our last few cities. Wright, Nanci, and Emma are set to arrive on February 10th and stay for 10 days, so we're very excited about seeing family. Being so far away from loved ones is the worst part about being here out of only a few bad parts.
Love you all,
Liz and Brett
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