First meeting·Jimi

Pingyao-Taiyuan three days two nights free travel

There was a 3-day long vacation, and I thought about several destinations after much deliberation, and finally chose the ancient city of Pingyao. This time we decided to give up self-driving, be a backpacker, and go by train.


first day

High-speed rail G605, departing at 10:30 in the morning, is expected to reach the ancient city of Pingyao in 4 hours, passing through Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, etc. After departure, it has started to rain in Beijing, and it is cloudy and misty until Shijiazhuang. After passing Shijiazhuang, the train entered the Taihang Mountains. For a long time, the train was traveling in a dark tunnel. It should be passing through the Taihang Mountains. The subway with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour passed through the tunnel and saw the sun again. Shanxi is The sun was shining brightly. After arriving at Yangquan, the landform turned into a plateau with ravines, and gradually turned into a plain near Taiyuan. The lady sitting next to me is from Shanxi. She is very enthusiastic and talkative. She heard us talk about traveling in Pingyao, and gave us a lot of introductions. The 4-hour journey was not boring.


The ancient city of Pingyao is located in the suburbs of Pingyao. The inn has a car to pick it up. The service is very attentive. Later, I found that although the entire ancient city of Pingyao is a tourist attraction, the service quality is very good, and the folk customs are simple and natural.

After reading many reviews on Ctrip, I booked the Pingyao Hotel, a five-star homestay. After arriving at the destination, I found that I had chosen the right place. It is like a scenic spot in itself. The guest room is in a unique courtyard, and the room is also decorated in ancient style. The most common big kang room we booked is already very gorgeous.

After a brief rest in the room, I went out immediately. At this time, the sky began to drizzle, but it did not affect our excitement in taking pictures in the yard of the clubhouse. I have never stayed in such a unique homestay.

Not far from the door is the Temple of the City God, follow the map provided by the front desk, it is very clear and convenient. The layout of the ancient city of Pingyao is square, and the streets are well-formed. After visiting the houses, I found that the layout of each courtyard is similar, well-regulated, and unassuming. This is the traditional characteristic of us Chinese.

The rain quickly wet the stone road, shining brightly. Walking from Chenghuangmiao Street to South Street, passing by Shilou, the streets are lined with old houses marked with "Dwellings of the Qing Dynasty", sometimes from the period of the Republic of China. The shadow of the old house is reflected on the stone road, which is very beautiful. Some houses are very old with traces of time, some have been renovated and turned into inns, shops, restaurants, etc., and there are also very small bourgeoisie Western-style cafes and bars. The combination of old and new, Chinese and Western, is quite interesting.

The successful application of the entire ancient city of Pingyao as a World Heritage Site is indeed very reasonable. The ancient city is mainly for tourism. Naturally, there are many commercial shops, restaurants and inns, etc., especially on the two main pedestrian streets. However, if you walk into the alleys, you will see many ancient houses where residents live, all from their ancestors. Inherited, through the wide and narrow alleys of the ancient city, you will see the old people basking in the sun at the base of the wall, and the sign of "Qing Dynasty Residential House" is hung at the door of the house next to it. There are more than 40,000 residents, and the integration of business and residence, modernity and tradition is natural and harmonious, which is really rare.



Fortunately, the rain stopped after a while. We walked and stopped in the streets and alleys of Pingyao for more than two hours, mainly in the eastern part of the city, and almost went around. Some people are getting married, and some people are having funerals. The joys and sorrows of the world are not connected. .





Passing by a fire temple, no tickets are required and no one manages it. Go in and take a walk. It is a museum of building components.

I have been lingering in the city wall of the east gate for a long time. The city wall was built in the Zhou Dynasty 2,500 years ago. It was originally made of mud and straw mixed with glutinous rice juice. It is really rare that the cannon hole can be preserved so well after going through a lot of storms and wars. Now we are lucky to be able to touch it with our hands. We really like this vicissitudes of life.

Take a break in a garden in the heart of a small street called Helan Bridge. There are a few children playing and playing, and then they ride bicycles to other places. There are two or three old people sitting and chatting in the pavilion. What a wonderful weekend in the ancient city.

After sitting for a while, I became hungry, and I bought a few bottles of sea buckthorn juice on the way, which was heavy on my back, so I walked back to the intersection of Chenghuang Temple, and there was a snack bar without a brand, and a middle-aged woman was sitting in it. I heard about Shanxi delicacies introduced by my friends on the train, and I just saw the signs of "Wantuo (bald)" all over the street, so I really want to taste it. Guessing that such a small shop should be relatively authentic, I ordered a bowl of vegetarian stir-fried bowls, and it was really delicious.



Putting our backpacks in the guild hall, we decided to have a "serious" dinner, so we went to Tian Yuankui, the most famous gourmet restaurant on the Internet, on South Street. I ordered Pingyao Beef, Changlong Eggplant and Vegetarian Noodles, served with some hand-brewed vinegar, which tasted good.

After dinner, I walked aimlessly on South Street, and suddenly found that many people were rushing towards the South Gate. It was almost eight o'clock, and we walked together. There is a Weng City, which is used for military defense. It was getting dark at this time, thinking that it would be nice if there were lights on the city tower, more people came from all over the city, and they all walked outside the city gate. We were curious and asked a person what was going on, she said She didn't know either, and when she saw people walking out, she followed them. Outside the city gate, there are people in the dark, and you can’t see the road clearly. There is probably a bridge, and a security guard keeps shouting with a loudspeaker, "Don’t stay on the bridge, go to the square below", and ask again. Only then did I realize that there was a light show on the city walls and gates, and it was about to start. We quickly found a slightly safer location, and a few minutes later, the show began.

The performance is very creative and exciting. The changing and dynamic lights hit the city wall from the square, telling the historical changes of Pingyao, places of interest, and human customs. Music is like a big drama.

The light show lasted about 20 minutes. When it was over, I walked back. The back door on the south side of the hall was locked. The map showed that there was a street with coffee shops, bars and cold drinks on the opposite side. When I walked in, I saw no one was there. The lanterns were lit alone, and most of the shops were closed. Traveling always dislikes the crowds, and the photos are taken with strangers. However, some places really need the bustling crowds to feel it. If it is too deserted, it will be unpopular.

Walking back to the guild hall, the red lanterns were hung high, and it was very quiet.

second day

As usual, I woke up very early in the morning. After the rain, the temperature cooled down. I put on all the clothes I brought, hat and scarf, and it was much warmer. The breakfast hall of the guild hall has to pass through the second half of the Confucian Temple, and breakfast has such a sense of history. We arrived at the restaurant with admiration while taking pictures while walking. Breakfast is much better than "full".

The courtyards in the other half of the hall are like small gardens. This is probably the most "luxury" place we have lived in in recent years.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, there are already tourist groups on the tower of the south gate, passing through the gate, and seeing the gate and the city wall at this time is another kind of magnificence. Many people like to use the city wall to take pictures, it really has a sense of history. When I came to the square outside the city gate, several groups of local residents were dancing in the square. It was a very good experience to dance in the square with the city wall and gate of more than two thousand years as the background. The husband turned into an old urchin again, and danced in the square with the three girls.


From the south gate, I walked across the South Street to the county government office, and then walked back to the inn. The ancient city of Pingyao does not require tickets. Its tickets are mainly for several historical attractions, such as the city gate and the city wall, the Risheng Ticket Office, the Escort Bureau, the County Government, the Confucian Temple, etc., because they are historical relics, so it is three points to see seven Listen separately, follow the tour guide to listen to the history, otherwise it is just some old houses and old yards. We like places with history very much, but we never talk to tour guides or listen to explanations. We basically have a general understanding of each scenic spot before going to see it. A lot of information can be easily found on the Internet. We all like the sense of history and the traces of time, but we are not interested in the specific history or unofficial stories or even legends in the guide words, and we don’t like being taken by others. We just go wherever we want, and we count where we go. true freedom to walk.


I didn't buy a return train ticket from Pingyao to Beijing before departure, so I had to return to Beijing from Taiyuan. Originally, I wanted to stay in Pingyao for two nights, and then return to Beijing via Taiyuan on the third day. However, after visiting the ancient city for an afternoon and a morning, I found that as a tourist with a time limit for the return trip, it is difficult to have the feeling of "meeting a person with a white head, choosing a city to die", and the depth of a cup of coffee for an afternoon. You can't do it either. I always wanted to hurry, so I temporarily changed my plan to go to Taiyuan ahead of schedule, and stopped by the Qiao Family Courtyard for a visit. Originally planned to go to Shuanglin Temple or Zhenguo Temple, but the traffic was not very convenient, so I had to give up.

I bought Guanyun beef and sea buckthorn juice and bid farewell to Pingyao. The driver of the inn took us to the North Gate Bus Station of Pingyao Ancient City. As soon as we got off the bus, someone came to ask us where we were going. After hearing that we were going to Qiao’s courtyard, we were asked to wait on the side of the square. We were instinctively on guard, fearing that it might be a "black car driver in a tourist attraction", but the practice in recent years has given us a lot of trust in others, so we went to the side of the road and waited as he said, and a bus came from the scene after a while After driving out of the station, the driver is the guy who greets us, 15 yuan per person, and we will arrive in about 45 minutes. The driver was very nice, and when we got off the bus, he told us how to get to Taiyuan by car from Qiao's compound.

The family compound has just been removed from the five-A scenic spot brand, and is required to receive tourists again after rectification. The historic sites of the Qiao Family Courtyard have been preserved and managed very well. Part of it restores the old life situation, and part of it is used for exhibitions of history and customs. The service is also very good, clean and tidy. Now there are no commercial sales and shops, and even There are no places to sell food or water, but there are rest places where hot water can be provided.

The rich mansions in the old days were really luxurious, with high gates, carved beams and painted pillars, and a yard within a yard. From the buildings, you can also get a glimpse of the life of the rich merchants. Poetry etiquette, seniority, and inferiority are not inferior to the scholarly fragrance. family. The compound consists of four courtyards (halls) and a garden, and is the history of a large family for several generations. Although each courtyard has its own characteristics and small differences, the overall layout is the same. Chinese people are more particular about houses, so there are rules about where the house is high and where it is low, and the courtyards are similar. The compound is indeed quite unusual. The compound in Shanxi and some ancient towns and temples in Shanxi are well preserved. One of the reasons may be that Shanxi was relatively backward in development and relatively poor. Historical artifacts and relics have been a blessing in disguise. Tourists who have watched the TV series "Qiao Family Courtyard" may find it more interesting to visit.

I stayed in Qiao's compound for more than two hours, because there was no place to sell food or restaurants, so I had to fill my hunger with biscuits and hot water, cross the road when I went out of the scenic spot, and stopped a long-distance bus at the roadside for 23 yuan per person. Arrive at Taiyuan by car. Because it was a temporary plan, an express hotel not far from the high-speed rail station and the long-distance station was booked on the road. It turned out that this was an unwise choice. My husband was misunderstood twice by the room cleaning staff that he came to open the hourly room.

The must-see places in Taiyuan are the Jinci Temple and the Shuangta Temple. Shuangta Temple, also known as Yongzuo Temple, is the city card of Taiyuan. Take a taxi to the park, and there are very few tourists. The twin pagodas are indeed very tall and magnificent. A Wenfeng pagoda is not a Buddhist pagoda but a "fengshui pagoda", and a Xuanwen pagoda was built in the Ming Dynasty. It was called the relic pagoda because it contained Buddhist relics in the pagoda. It's a pity that most of the Xuanwen Pagoda was destroyed in the war, and what I see today is that it was repaired later. Even though it was repaired, it is enough to admire.

Both towers are of masonry structure. The stupa is open and can be climbed up. We tried to climb a few floors. The stairs were steep and narrow and spiraled up. When we reached the fifth floor, our waist could no longer be straightened. , I was a little scared, so I went down. The steep and narrow stairs are almost 90 degrees, and there are no handrails. It is really easy to go upstairs and difficult to go downstairs. My legs trembled when I went downstairs, and I was in pain for three days when I went home.

I temporarily did my homework in Taiyuan. I have a rough map of Taiyuan. I took a taxi from Shuangta Temple to the "Liuxiang" food street. I was a bit disappointed when I got there. There are all kinds of delicacies from all over the country on the food street, but I can’t find Shanxi-style pasta snacks. I only tasted sea-buckthorn-flavored ice cream at the “Snow Mountain Cold Drink Hall” at the street entrance. Shanxi’s specialties are hard to find elsewhere. Because it’s not a weekend and it’s not time for dinner, there are not many people on the street, but I saw a window queuing up from a distance, and when I got closer, I saw that they were selling freshly fried twists. It should be an online celebrity shop that accepts cash, so we also bought six of them to try, and it was really good.

The Fen River is the mother river of Shanxi. The Fen River passes through Taiyuan from north to south. Cities with water have auras. I rode a bicycle from Liuxiang to the bank of the Fen River. There is a Binhe expressway and a wide The green garden is a good place for morning exercises.

Now it’s off-duty time, I took a taxi from the bank of the Fenhe River to the Shanxi Guild Hall on Tiyu Road for dinner, only to find out that this Shanxi Guild Hall was the filming location of "Run, Brother", and the names of the stars were written on the door of the private room. I've seen this variety show so I don't think so. There are a lot of dishes, and the price is acceptable compared to its reputation and status. I ordered a set meal of various coarse grain noodles and sliced ​​​​noodles with oily pork, which tasted good. It is estimated that this place is similar to "Quanjude" in Beijing. The locals don't come here very often, and the price is relatively expensive, so there are not many diners. I heard that there are various performances of pasta dishes, but we didn't wait until it was too late. , The chef's performance on the variety show is played on the big screen in a loop, just watching it is enough.

Noodles are always very filling. After eating, I walked on the street, and then took a bus back to the hotel. I always have a kind of obsession. I feel that if I don’t take the bus or eat street shops, I haven’t been to a city.


third day

Woke up in the morning and it was raining outside. Fortunately, we caught up with the two coldest rainy days in Shanxi after autumn. We took a taxi to Jinci Temple. The driver saw that we were from other places, so he introduced himself to the history and culture of Taiyuan and even Shanxi. Just like occasionally meeting an old Beijing taxi driver in Beijing who can tell the truth about Sijiucheng, we were lucky to meet an equivalent in Taiyuan. For a place that is one of the birthplaces of China, the history can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, more than 2,500 years ago. When we arrived at the main entrance, the driver didn’t think he was having a good time, so he drove forward and took us to a side gate. After entering, we found that construction was going on inside, the road was blocked, and we walked through the grass with muddy feet. The tour guide at the gate chased us Please explain, I feel very uncomfortable...

On cloudy and rainy days, there is no one to tell the direction and no one to ask for directions. The park is very big. Turning left and right through the gaps in the fence, I finally saw the tourist group holding a small flag. The lesson this time is that no matter how you fool around, for places you are not familiar with, you must go to the main road.

I don't know how to describe the beauty of Jinci Temple. Both majestic and exquisite, the halls are built on the hillside, well-arranged, the ancient architectural sculptures are really miracles, and their charm remains the same after hundreds of years. If those beautiful palaces are made-up ladies, then those ancient trees with annual rings cannot hide their age. The ancient trees of more than a thousand years are common here, and it is the first time I have seen the ancient trees of more than two thousand years ago. It seems a bit powerless to describe Jinci Temple in words here, so let's show it with photos.


It is easy to take a taxi at the main entrance of Jinci Temple, and there are taxis waiting for guests. It is very polite, and you can use the meter to go back to the city. The driver was also very talkative, saying that he had never been to Beijing, and he felt that if he went to Beijing to play, he would have to bring his mother-in-law and not his old mother. of. The young man repeatedly said "Ai Ai", and these words can only be confide to passers-by like us who have never met before. Why do we sometimes have the furthest distance from the closest people? What you care about the most in your heart can only be poured out to strangers?

On the way, I was thinking about where to eat, and after much deliberation, I thought of Shanxi University near the hotel. In Beijing, I had the experience of eating in the canteen of a university, so I walked towards the school gate in a grand manner. My husband couldn't help but asked anxiously. Don't worry, with my teacher's appearance and temperament, no one will stop me. Sure enough, we entered the campus smoothly. My husband always said with a guilty conscience that we should forget it, until we entered the cafeteria and saw all kinds of special delicacies, and stopped talking. Two people spent 14 yuan to buy two bowls of sharpeners. After buying them, they regretted it immediately. One bowl should be enough.

After lunch, go back to the hotel to check out, take the bus to Taiyuan South Station G620 for three hours, write travel notes while watching the scenery, and return to Beijing.

After learning to drive, I like to travel by car. I am free and free. I can change my itinerary anytime and anywhere, and it is convenient to go wherever I want. Train and car tours are more limited by time and routes. It is more convenient to go to mass tourist attractions, but not to go to some niche places. For example, this time I regret to miss the painted sculpture of Shuanglin Temple. However, the two of us are young and old backpackers with a white-haired aunt and a bald uncle. Traveling by train and bus also has a lot of fun. Xi Xi took a nap on the long-distance bus to write a travel guide, and on the high-speed train back to Beijing, the first draft of my travel report was half completed.

You can't wait for the things you really like, just like the people you really like. Wait until you have money and time to wait for retirement to do something, it must not be what you really like, just like someone you like, you don’t have to wait until you have money to pursue it, because when you are rich, the person you like may already be. It's someone else's wife (husband).