2012-06-30 pingyao => taiyuan => xi'an

My Journal notes tell me that Taiyuan is the coal and banking center of China. Interesting sights out the window included goats. The night before Lois, Sally, Aileen and I went on a quest in the hotel for a swimming pool. Lois and I swam and it was fun. On this day (June 30) we went to the Courtyard of the Family Qiao. The Qiao family was a very wealthy family from about 200 years ago. It was pouring rain but we saw the courtyards and lovely gardens and little figurines behind glass cases showing scenes from everyday life, including Chinese New Year. I got some good photos here and I remember it was easy to get lost because there were alot of little rooms. I will post the photos on the next post as that seems to work better.

Pic of Fireplaces where money is burned to honor ancestors.

Our first hot pot dinner, but not our last

The Qiao family courtyard illustrates the final completion of brick replacing the traditional post and beam construction. On one side of the court yard you can see a two story building solely made out of brick. That brick is holding up the second story and the roof. You can see this because the brick work is English bond, a brick laying technique that is designed to hold up heavy loads. It uses two layers of brick side by side then one layer of bricks pointing inwards that straddles the two layers below. See illustration.

On the other side of the courtyard you will see a one story building that if you look behind Clays shoulder, you will see English bond for the first three feet then you see bricks that are standing on end, they are designed to cover a post that is hidden inside and supporting the roof. I know its not the best photo but my camera's battery went dead. So in one location you can see an innovative cheaper construction technique replace an older more expensive technique.

edited by jdarrough on 10/2/2012

Mary mentioned the swimming pool quest, which was a surreal journey through construction, deserted hallways, and a large vat of water we had to step into in order to access the pool. The vat was in the middle of a stairway, leaving us stumbling up the steps and hoping not to slip! It was dark, and the whole scene was eerie but memorable. I believe this was also the hotel where I took a photograph of a gas mask that came with the room. Definitely not your standard hotel room fare in the US, but a friend told me that they'd had a number of terrible hotel fires in China that inspired that amenity.

At the Hot Pot restaurant, I wondered at first what I would do. What a wonderful surprise when they brought out a special hot pot for me and Steve to share. I jokingly referred to it as the Vegetarian Quarantine Zone, but I was actually so grateful that every restaurant we went to was able to accommodate me. Having accidentally eaten non-veggie food a few times in the past, I can guarantee you that it's not pretty when someone who hasn't eaten meat in 20+ years ingests some. (You get really, really sick.) That never happened in China, and I can't thank Clay/Venus/local guides enough for their efforts.