It takes overnight to get to xi’an from ping yao . Your chance to get a soft sleeper train ticket would be quite hard because there are only two such carriges on the train . 

There are chartered public buses to xian from pin yao . The condition is pretty good in terms of road ..ect . but you got to watch your belonings . there are at least 3 to 5 bus lines coming to xian daily . the cost is higher than train travel by about 20 to 30 yuan.

Pingyao’s enchanting ancient city walls encases the old town and it appears to be in a time warp. Once again, Red Laterns are hung outside everydoor, but the modern world quickly crept back in…in the form of Sue Witcombe!! We were wealking along the lanes of Old Pingyao when we both said at the same time ‘is that…sue???’ and sure enough it was! We went over and grabbed her and her travel mate Adil, and headed to the neaest pub for a few drinks and catch ups. Johnny went to Primary and I went to high school with her, so we caught up on some goss, lotsa fun!!

We met up with these guys a few more times over the next day, aswell as thier tour group buddies, all really fun people, aswell as fitting in all the sights. We visited Chinas first Bank- impressive as it was run way ahead of its time.

We visited a couple of temples and climbed up the lookout point at the South Gate part of the wall, which looked down over the walled city. Johnny was stoked as he had some fairy floss, made then and there on the back of a bicycle! One of the best things about our stay in Pingyao was the size of our bed…. there was a table originally dividing it, so once we moved that, it was HUGE! we both only took up about a 1/3rd of it….a classic. All in all we really enjoyed Pingyao- and would recommend the stop!!!

Tours to Pingyao…