After that terrible road accident we decided not to cycle anymore for that day, and drove to Pingyao by car. Here we stayed for one day.

The old city of Pingyao is probably the best conserved one in China. This attracts of course many tourists, quite an unusual sight for us after travelling for 7 weeks in less touristic parts of China.

There are 20 different sites in the old city that are on Unesco’s list of world heritage, like China’s oldest bank, Taoist and Buddhist temples. The temple of the city god is very impressive and holds a gallery with many scaring statues illustrating all possible sorts of punishments for bad people. Between all these memorable places are lots of hotels and guest-houses, one nicer than the other. The smell of succulent barbecues, Chinese noodles and moon cakes is every corner of this city where no cars are allowed, at least officially. Only a few electric minibuses do circulate noiselessly. Pingyao is a post-card city; just like us Westerners imagine a Chinese town.

The ancient governor’s palace has been built with a exquisite taste for beauty, but just besides it is a prison and a museum of torture. Here visitors can shiver in front on the most disgusting and unimaginable instruments, which only a sick human brain can have invented to torture and kill other humans. Lots of oversize old photographs illustrate how these instruments were used. Many visitors laughed and joked at this, but I felt quite oppressed after my Syrian experience.

Nairuo lives here, and was so kind to show us her city for one and a half day. She brought us to restaurants where only local people go for food, and it was just delicious. It was the first time Nico enjoyed Chinese food, so you can imagine how tasty it was.