Photography by Mark Carnaby

Off the bullet train and 'Welcome to Pingyao'
Pingyao City Walls constructed around the year of 1370
North Gate Tower on the city wall
Woman and her son buying some food
Magic seeds in the roof of my hotel
My quaint accommodation for the next two days, Pingyao Yide Hotel
The hotel dates back to 1736, as you can see by my awesome cosy room - bed upstairs!
View from the top of my hotel
The best looking sink bowl ever!
The hotel's budgie
Two weddings taking place the day I arrived - lots of noise and firecrackers!
Pingyao Wedding March from Mark Carnaby on Vimeo.
'Here comes the bride' is she wearing ear plugs?!
One of the hotels where a wedding was taking place
You might have noticed in the photos it's very smoggy in Pingyao, plus theres a sort of sulphur/coal smell is in the air at all times - I like this photo of the coal just eating up the street, sum's it up for me
Just outside the city walls lots and lots of construction going on
Some unusual stone pillar animal heads
The famous Pingyao 'Moon Cakes' made with flour, soybean oil, sesame and sugar
The Qing Dynasty tower and a photo opportunity seat - for a price!
Street vendors cooking up some spicy sausages - ni hao!
As cars are prohibited within the city walls, bikes & electric cars are the way to get around
Old Chinese cart from imperial times (the days horse-driven transportation!)
Pingyao City street life
Pingyao local cooking up some nuts
China Fire Services badge I spotted up on a roof
Not your ordinary bicycle by a long way!
Qingxu Taoist Temple in Pingyao, built during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)
Close up of a scary demon from the next photo
The terrifying depictions of hell at the Qingxu Taoist Temple
I would imagine this to be a very, very old table in the Qingxu Taoist Temple
Dragon mural on a wall, like the way the bamboo frame fits around it
Family on an electric bike - nice to give me a smile for the camera!
Entrance sign to the Shuanglin Temple, about half hour taxi ride out from Pingyao City and originally founded in 571 A.D.
The thousand-armed Guanyin in the Shuanglin Temple - this is what I came to see, what a sculpture indeed!
Tickets from Pingyao, the designs of attraction tickets throughout China seem to very creative!
This was my bullet train from Beijing to Pingyao - I actually missed my original booked one due to station confusion in Beijing, I didn't realise there was four main ones! fortunately I rebooked and got a full refund too!

China 2014: Part Four of Eleven

The Chinese Adventure: Pingyao

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After a bit of trouble with the trains (not knowing Beijing had no less than four main railway stations, I went to catch my bullet train to Pingyao from the wrong one and consequently missed it, luckily not only did I get a full refund but also the next train a few hours later on that same day – phew…) I arrived in smoggy Pingyao! This really felt like old China (this city dates back some 2,700 years) and staying in a quaint hotel in the middle of the city was surreal, I don’t think I saw even one westerner at this place! I took a walk along the City walls & checked out banking buildings from the past ~ Pingyao was the financial centre of China back in the day. On my leaving I also took a trip to Shuanglin Temple to see The thousand-armed Guanyin!

More photos in my blog post I made whilst travelling in China