Above: Traffic jam in the hutong of Beijing.
I had an early wake up to take the 0740 train from Pingyao to Taiyuan only to find that the train had been delayed by 30 minutes. It was the first delay I’ve encountered. The 1h30 hard sleeper was warm.
It was interesting listening to people talk on the rural trains. Quite often I meet westerners speaking Mandarin very well except for completely wrong intonations. Well, I now realise that certain Chinese dialects are similar to Mandarin but have very different intonations; eg. this drink is “not cold” sounds like “not bright”, and your bag is “underneath” sounds like “in the prawn noodles”.
I had enough time to get lunch and use at ATM in Taiyuan before boarding the bullet train to Beijing. The 3h30 journey was uneventful.
Grandma and baby carrier on the train.
I managed to get from Beijing West station to my hostel relatively hassle-free bar a small glitch with the instructions given by the Red Lantern hostel.
The hostel is located in a traditional hutong area. Many hutongs have been bowled down in favour of development but pockets exists here and there between high rises. I managed to fit in a walk and dinner before retiring.