We had always planned to have a few days off in Pingyao,
so we used our day to plan the last of our time in China, read over information we already had saved on our next Visa application & border crossing, search for any newer information & decided on a plan.
Determined not to get lost and be wandering the streets at night again, we also used this opportunity to email our next lot of accommodation again to try and get a personal reply to confirm our booking.
After a few hours of being cooped up, we set off through the ancient city to find some lunch & stretch our legs. The weather today is still windy, but it is now really sunny and the temperature has come up to 16 degrees. We both ordered big bowls of noodles & beer at this little restaurant that was loudly playing 90's pop music. By far our cheapest meal - less than 20 Yuan each for our meal! We are once again boldly loading up our noodle bowls with spoons of fresh chilli & oil they provide on the tables.
Later that day we ru into the hotel owner, whose name is Li Hong, the same one we woke up & who helped us by finding us a room in another hotel. He asks us about our next destination & accommodation booking. We explain we can't get confirmation, he then offers to ring them for us. After a few phone calls and lots of confusion, translating Chinese & English the whole time, we are told that the next hotel can't find our booking and that they don't accept foreign guests.
Feeling a little bit disappointed but also relieved to finally have an answer, we cancel that booking and make a new booking. The new hostel immediately confirms with a personal message. So we celebrate with some ginger tea in the managers office and some light conversation about where we are from and some of the differences between our countries. We also show him on a big map of China where we have been & where we are going. The conversation then leads to us inviting him to have a beer with us, Li Hong declines the beer, instead insisting we need to try Chinese 'white wine' and that he can take us out to dinner and show us some traditional food!
A short walk later and we are seated in a really nice restaurant. We are shown the menu & agree to eat whatever Li Hong orders us, already drinking our BYO white wine that is called Baijiu. Baijiu, also known as Shaojiu, is a strong distilled spirit, normally 50% alcohol per volume, made from grain, the name literally means 'white alcohol' & each part of the country has its own preferred type. We are drinking one called Fen Jiu that comes in a smart looking bottle with a gold and red label, found commonly in the Shaanxi province. We each have a small glass jug and a tiny wine cup, about half the size of a standard shot glass, that the wine is poured into. With each drink, we cheers & then consume the contents of our tiny wine cup. I would describe it as refreshing, with a slight sweet aroma, not entirely tasteless, not unpleasant, but very strong. You can feel it heating you up as it goes down, it goes really well with the Chinese food and I actually think I prefer it more than vodka. Between the 3 of us, we finished the whole bottle!
Li Hong ordered a total of 8 different, traditional meals featuring wheat noodles, squid, pork, beef, vegetables & dumplings. He explained what each dish was and was very amused by my attempts to pick up some slippery vegetables covered in sauce, using chopsticks. It was a great meal & we feel very lucky to have been shown traditional Chinese food by a local! Over dinner we spoke some more about things like travel, jobs & family lives. Li Hong has a wife and daughter that live in another town and manage one business, when its busy Li Hong stays in Pingyao away from his family to manage the hotel (his second business). He asked us a few questions about our relationship such as marriage & kids, then complimented us by saying he could tell we were in love. It was a really nice compliment coming from someone who can't understand english & come to this opinion based on brief observations of our interactions. After we had all eaten, Li Hong spoke to the person at the restaurant counter, seeming to settle the bill, refusing our money and protests to help pay. We have brought a bottle of Baijiu to leave on his desk when we go, to say thanks.
Feeling very full & a little bit tipsy, we walked home and fell into a very deep food coma.
- Alli
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