A day in an ancient city

There are a few perks on going to the middle of nowhere in China. On the second day of the new year, I went on a day trip with my cousin to Pingyao, Shanxi. We took an early D-train to Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi. Before the ultraspeed trains, it would take over 7 hours on the train to get to Taiyuan from Shijiazhuang given the trains have to circle around the mountains in Shanxi (in Chinese, the province means West Mountains). However, on the D-train, it took 80 minutes, and it is relatively cheap, $168 RMB for a roundtrip ticket (~$25 -$30 bucks). The development of high-speed infrastructure is truly amazing in China.

From Taiyuan, my aunt and uncle picked us up for a day trip to Pingyao. Only 100 km, Pingyao is the best preserved ancient Chinese walled city in the country. Made onto the list for NY Times' top places to visit in 2011, Pingyao offers a traditional feel of China in a holistic and complete manner. Two of the best sites of Pingyao is the first bank/exchange house of China (Rishenchang) and the County Government Office (Yamen). One of the most profound things after visiting those two places have been that things really have been the same since the Qing dynasty. According to our tour guide, the head of the government of Pingyao, equivalent of a mayor or chief justice, gets paid 45 liang (Chinese currency then) for a year of service and lives at Yamen, this grand collection of courts, living rooms, waiting rooms, and back gardens complete with its own temple. A highly-skilled worker at the exchange house, responsible for writing the letters in code to communicate across branches, would be paid 200 liang a year. I guess it pays to go into finance back in the old days too. Even back then, to work for an exchange house, one has to have passed several levels of national exams and be extremely qualified academically for the jobs are highly desirable (but in our case not so much after a few years).