Made by SGP. As usual, the packaging doesn’t really tell too much about how this product functions.

Neither does the back. At least a potential buyer does get to see the physical size of the f60Q, but you’re wondering what’s below the white thingy… could it be the dreaded brick charger???

Portable gadget users with pathetic battery life (iPhones!) who has to run around or go on extended trips without access to a power outlet will all need this. Some prefer one of those external battery pack that latches onto the iPhone, but I think I would prefer an external battery pack with a USB port where I can charge iPhones, iPads and just about anything that could be charged through a USB port. I’m thinking about AA batteries and perhaps an orphan android device or two, which I happened to have. I have been looking around for one in Seoul and there where the usual Mophie or Belkin packs but they are usually come with the foreign brand tax. I was looking at the cheaper packs but my mind was polluted with all those images of exploding Chinese-made battery packs with defective circuitry. Actually my previous pack was one built by Mili for the iPhone 3GS but it doesn’t charge anymore, perhaps caused by my impatience through charging it with a 2A USB charger (the Mili was rated at paltry and slow 0.5A). It is dead and I need a new one with better amperage. Simple: more amps = less charging time, and I know at least the iPhone can be charged with an iPad 10W (5V 2A) charger.

My requirements were simple. I need something that could at least charge an iPad (>4000mAh), could be charged from an iPad charger since that’s what I have in my luggage or backpack when I travel – please, no external brick charger and light enough it doesn’t look like I’m carrying an external CDROM drive with me. So, lets see what we have here…

Specifications:

From the outer packaging it is obvious this battery is supposedly rated at 6000mAh, which provides roughly 3 full charges to an iPhone 4s. The packaging only comes with a USB to micro USB cable and a slim paper manual apart from the battery pack itself. One of the frustration of researching this product is that there’s not really a lot of information about it, either in English nor in Korean, at least from what I’ve seen on the web. I was not able to check how it was supposed to charge, or what lies under that thing with the USB logo next to the power button. Nor was I able to know if there’s any power brick in the package like the Belkin 4000mAh power pack (short answer: no).

Hey hey! No power brick! Just a cable. And which makes you wonder next – how do I put this puzzle together. Good that there’s a manual.

The manual is sparse, but it does tell you almost everything you need to know about the product. Perhaps you need an engineer to understand it all, but at least to me it was quite obvious how to operate it once I went through it.

This was what I wanted to know. It could be charged with an iPad 10W charger.

Hell, I was not even able to find the dimensions of this thing before I bought it. Well the manual says “96.2×40.8×29” without any dimensions. I think I can safely say that’s in mm. The weight is 145.2g, which is quite light for me, just a little more than an iPhone. It comes in a nice shiny white finish just like an iPhone charger. When I bought it, that seems to be the only other color on the market.

Here’s the USB end…

… and the business end that houses the power switch and a latch with something hidden in it…

… doesn’t take long to realize it contains a micro-USB charging inlet and a switch to toggle the amperage that the charging end dispenses (the other end with the standard USB)

There are two ports, on one end of the white brick is a single standard USB port where you would stick in your device’s USB charging cable. The manual made it clear that this is only for output. On the other side is a flat button with the universal logo of a power button, a row of 4 LEDs, and a little door that opens up to reveal a micro USB port and a small switch. The door clicks shut in a satisfying and sure click.

When pressed, the power button dispenses power to your device that requires charging. If it is not pressed, there will be no power. Simple.

The 4 blue LEDs does what you’d think it does. All 4 lighted up means there’s 75-100% power left and so on. The best part of this design is that when power is low, the first LED turns red. And when you are charging the F60Q there the first LED remains red, while the other LED lights up blue till the battery is fully charged, when all 4 LEDs are blue. Easy when you are sleeping at night and the bright LED lights up the room and when you see no red light, its fully charged, just saying it for those that are distracted by faint lights when they’re sleeping.

The micro USB port is labelled in the manual as a power input only, meaning it to be used for charging only. I didn’t try using it as an output and don’t intend to try. Just next to the micro USB port is. Small switch that is labelled I and II. Which is for “android” and “apple”. My guess is that apple devices gets charged with 2A of current while android gets only 1A.

Usage:

When using the F60Q, you just connect your device’s charging cable into the standard USB port and press the power button on the other side. Since I love to charge my iPhone with the full 2A, it charges very quickly, similar to a stock iPad charger. And to charge the massive 6000mAh battery pack quickly, it’s recommended that you use an iPad charger, which still took 4-5 hours typically for all the 4 LEDs to turn blue, or for my case, the whole night when I’m sleeping. During use, I’ve charged an iPhone 3 times from 30% capacity to full 3 times and I still have two LED blue on the F60Q.

The real beauty of the F60Q is the ability to charge a device and be charged at 5V 2A. I’ve compared a few external battery charger while doing my research, and this one is the only one that lets me charge using a standard iPhone or iPad charger using the included USB-micro USB cable and then dispenses a full 2A of current, ensuring a quick charge when on the move. I just hate having to bring a new brick of a power supply a lot for just one device.

I’ll try to use this charged often and if I don’t report back here, then everything is working as advertised. Till then, write me a note if you need me to check on any function. Hope this helps for those that are interested in this product but couldn’t find out more about it anywhere.

And just like anything nowadays, its trendy to design it in California and have someone else manufacture it somewhere else cheaper.

Back to the topic at hand… Jeonju is just 3 hours away from Seoul, enough to get there in the morning, have lunch and dinner and then come back before midnight, which is what I’m going to do.

At the Express Bus Terminal, the bus leaves from Central City terminal about every 10 minutes. There are two classes of bus, but I’d go for the more expensive service that cost 17,900W one way. According to the map, it is just about 200km away, but as usual, traffic jam plus heavy rain means that the trip took 3 hours. There will be a break half way to Jeonju, and the rest stop i surprisingly well equipped. There is a small supermarket, and plenty of shops selling sit down meals or korean junk food. They even have toebokki and sundae (korean blood sausage, not ice cream).

Highway rest stop: Korean junk food… and it is good!

The bus ends up in Jeonju’s Express Bus Terminal (전주고속버스터미널) in the north of the town. By now it is already quite late in the afternoon, around 2pm and I’ve not have my lunch yet along the way. At least it’s time for a proper lunch. There are plenty of taxis waiting at the bus terminal, which is convenient.

Seungmidang Restaurant
First Bibimbap mission takes me to Seongmidang restaurant (성미당) close to the Gaeksa landmark. It is hidden in a small street, but with a GPS you will never be lost looking for location 35.817413, 127.145264. Even at 3pm there is a queue here. The couple in front of me are Japanese, which makes this restaurant famous in Japanese guide books too. Normally I would avoid places like these, but maybe there’s no harm giving it a try.

Seungmidang Restaurant exterior. I was so hungry I didn’t spot the “high end audio” shop next door.

Entering the restaurant

There are 2 types of bibimbap here on the menu, raw beef and normal. It is not cheap at all. But at least the banchans are plentiful and not too bad tasting. And soon the main dish arrives in a brass bowl that is heated so much that the stuff inside sizzles. You mix is around and get the beef sort of cooked. The rice is already mixed with the gochujang sauce, unlike most bibimbaps I’ve had in Seoul. And the hot bowl creates a layer of hardened rice where it contacts the bowl. They call this nooroongji 누룽지, which I used to hate, but started to like after some time. What’s important is that the dish smells great.

One way to tell a good restaurant is the sparse menu. This one is not the simplest one I’ve seen, but it still screams quality

Bibimbap at Seongmidang: before mixing. The red stuff is the beef. Gochujang is already mixed into the rice under all the toppings.

After mixing, and pre-diving in… I could still smell the dish while writing this up.

One sentence reviews the whole dish: its damn good.

The gochujang sauce that they use is on the sweet side. Not terribly spicy, but the whole thing just balances together. I eat very quick. And best part of it all, the layer of burnt rice at the bottom with the burnt gochujang sauce. I notice locals pouring soup at the end to soften the noorongji, but I quickly developed a way to scrap the crunchy bits off the bottom. And it was good.

Well, I’m here as a tourist…
… so I better do what tourists usually do. After the nice late lunch, its time to walk around to let the food settle and get ready for dinner. Just a street to the north of the restaurant is the Gaeksa. Wikitravel describes it as an ancient hotel. It looks like a small building with an over engineered roof but I don’t see how it could be a hotel for a town. There are maximum of 3-4 rooms, so perhaps it is for VIPs only. Locals are just hanging around here having a picnic.

Gaeksa

More Gaeksa. And so I lied. There were not that many people here today. Perhaps it was forecasted to rain?

A few streets to the south east of the Gaeksa is a park where Gyeongijeon (경기전) shrine is located. I believe the attraction here is the portrait of Taejo Lee, the founder of the Joseon dynasty is placed. In the central building, there is indeed a portrait. Otherwise the buildings look very chinese inspired. In fact, I wouldn’t be able to tell that this was in Korea if I saw the exact building in China. Other than that, not much more I can say about this place. There are plenty of photo groups walking around with large lenses (I don’t know what’s with these people, walking around a park with a 70-200 f2.8. If they are shooting birds, I can think of better places than parks… not to mention they probably need a 600mm for all these small birds).

Strange logo at Gyeongijeon park. I don’t understand Korean yet, but it doesn’t look like “toilet” to me.

Now this looks more like a park

I suppose this must be one of the shrines…

… and yes it is, and this is the portrait people came to see. Perhaps photography is prohibited here. Anyway.

Time to move east to the Hanok Village. Short review: I thought that I would be looking at old buildings. What this is, is a mash of old and new reconstructed buildings. The attraction here seems to be more the shopping than the building. There are restaurants, shops selling handicraft, a nice shallow granite “stream” on the walkway and even an Italian restaurant. Nice place to take a walk, but disappointing historically.

Traditional meets modern

On the way to the Hanok Village, there are more bibimbap restaurants than any other

Smack in the heart of the Hanok Village. And I’m sure you were expecting some old stuff too…

For the benefit of doubt, lets assume this is a renovated old house. This is an inn. Which I presume is getting healthy business.

Why should I complain too much. The aim was to walk enough so that I can go on to the next restaurant for more bibimbap around dinner time before going back to Seoul. By the time I was done with the Hanok village, my watch registers 7pm. Sounds like dinner time to me. I backtracked using the cookie crumb feature on my Garmin and back to Seungmidang Restaurant as there is supposed to be another competing restaurant near by that is just as popular.

Evening in Jeonju, enroute to the next meal destination…

Gajok Hwegwan Restaurant
This restaurant is located at the south west corner of the intersection at 35.817154, 127.146157. The korean name is 가족 회관. You have to go up one flight of stairs to the second floor and enter an entrance full of pots of ingredients. This place is more of a factory than the first restaurant. Everything is piled high, waiters and waitresses with trolleys with banchan arranged and stacked up on trays ready to unload onto new tables very quickly. And the bibimbap arrived very quick too. Everything efficient.

Restaurant’s army of ajummas at work.

Le Banchans

and more Bibimbaps

How did it go? I loved the banchans here. Probably better than Seungmidang. Too bad the Bibimbap was normal tasting. Still quite ok, but nothing magical like Seungmidang I believe it could be because of the gochujang here doesn’t taste as good. But overall it was a good meal, rescued thanks to the banchans. At least that’s how I feel.

Then again two bibimbaps in the span of 4 hours is probably too much for a day. After dinner, it was time to take a taxi to the bus station for the 3 hour long trip back to Seoul. I guess I’ll have to come back again to do the other restaurants in the future. And I think I might have tasted what is definitely the best bibimbap so far. And that’s a big feat for a small town!

Ticket back to Seoul

Night bus. Man, that TV screen is tiny from the back!

Resulting path that I took around downtown Jeonju

*End of Post*

Pingyao Old Town

Yamen Government Complex

Pingyao City Wall

Group of senior citizens relaxing outside the city wall

Street seller on south street

Main tower on Pingyao’s south tourist street

I blame a previous issue of Silverkris. I tend not to take any more airline magazines as they all turn out to be paper weight after it leaves the plane, but now with a camera phone with enough resolution, I can take a picture of the page and read it later. And so it was, one edition had an article on Pingyao. That’s in Shanxi, Shanxi with single “a” and not the one where the terracotta warriors are located. It was not a long article, just one page, and something about not being affected by the cultural revolution and the fact that this small town was the first financial hub in China about a hundred years before Shanghai. And so during the long weekend in May, when I was out of ideas of where to go, Pingyao came to mind. Wouldn’t be that bad to decamp over there for a few days just to chill out.

The only issue is getting there. One idea was to go to Beijing and then taking a train, but that seems to take a whole day. Another way is to go through the capital of Shanxi Province, Taiyuan, just about 2 hours by bus. I like the chinese bus. Dirt cheap (though train would be cheaper) and full of locals. So… mind made up, and ready to go.

5 May 2011:

Taiyuan airport. Can’t get a better shot than this. Blurry picture a combination of bad chinese air and dirty aircraft windows.

Maybe its a new airport, maybe it is just underused. TYN.

Bus ticketing booth and a waiting airport bus to take passengers to the city.

The flight lands in a nice new airport that is being extended at least at this moment. Couldn’t see too well anyway, the usual chinese smog/fog or manchurian dust storm clouds it all. Whatever it is, I could see the airport terminal in Taiyuan, and it reminds me immediately of a flattened Sydney Opera House. It did look big, at least for a regional airport. Then again Taiyuan is not a small city, a few million people live here. They must fly a lot too. However the luggage reclaim area looks smaller (just a few conveyor belts) than I thought and when you get out of it, a bus ticketing booth sits in front of the exit. To make it quick, since I want to dedicate more of this page to Pingyao: board bus bound for the train station, pay 15 RMB, and 9km later I’m dropped off at a junction, about 500m walk away to Jiannan Bus Station. It was easy for me with a GPS, but ask the driver and he will tell you where to get off. Paid 26RMB for the bus and walked to the parking lot to look for the usual conveyor bus system that they have in the provinces. There’s a queue of buses sorted by destination. When a bus is full it leaves. Simple. Next one comes up and fills up again till the closing time, which I was told is about 6:30pm.

Jiannan Bus Station in Taiyuan

Bus ticket to Pingyao

Just walk to the back of the terminal and all the buses are waiting there

Its late in the evening when I got on the bus, so there was not much of a scenery. You go through the large outskirts of Taiyuan city, then some smaller towns and before long the bus drops everyone off outside Pingyao city walls. I knew which direction it is, but it is a fair bit of walk away. Jump into one of those motorcycle taxies and 2RMB later you’re dropped off at the Northern Gate. I asked for the price to the hotel close to the Southern gate and they quoted 20RMB. Well, 2RMB to Northern Gate, and 2x the distance I have to pay 10x? I didn’t like the math. So told the guy to sod off, I’ll take a walk thank you.

Dropped off outside the northern wall, trying not to be run over by cyclists

My first glimpse of Pingyao’s city wall

Had a quick glace at the imposing city wall, about 4 storeys tall and punctuated with watch towers every 150m or so. After passing through the small Northern Gate, I’m greeted by a well preserved old town but all the shops at this entrance and all the way to the hotel is converted into the typical chinese souvenir store and restaurants. I took the North Street, then West Street and then South Street before hitting Yamen Jie towards Zhengjia Hostel.

Now there are two units next to each other. One is a Hostel and the other is a Hotel. I booked a small single room so I’m supposed to stay at the hotel wing a few shop entrances down the road. The hotel, like many buildings within the Pingyao city walls, is a refurbished former ancient residence complete with the old courtyard. Decorative lanterns hang on the roof to make it look nostalgic. Rooms all surround the courtyard. I’m glad I chose a place to stay that’s far away from the main North and South street where traffic would make things less than comfortable given the Chinese’ penchant for sounding the horn at every step, and not forgetting the 2 stroke vehicles that crowd rural cities like this one.

6 May 2011:
I think the trip to Pingyao was proving a little more epic than I hoped for. For once I am really not trying to wake up early. After having chinese breakfast made up of 2 buns, and egg, some vegetables stirfried in chilli flakes and a bowl of corn soup, I’m staring at 11am start. I will have two full days in Pingyao and in that two days I plan to walk the whole town, even the small streets to see what life is like here. From Yamen Street, the most logical place to start is at the Yamen complex, an old government building built in the same architecture as usual chinese complexes, with all the courtyards, halls and to the side, rooms for more usual purpose like living quarters.

Yamen Government Complex:
At the ticket booth, a 150RMB ticket gets me around for up to 3 days. This is sufficient for most of the sights, but not all. I take that to mean that I get to go into official sights and the other places that require additional payment should be private venture. 150RMB is not that expensive given most UNESCO sanctioned place in China start at least around 300RMB per entry. Who cares about the multi-day ticket, statistically I’m sure they know that most tourists are here for a day trip and do the usual express in and express out itinerary.

The Yamen is a bigger complex than I expected. I sometimes follow a tour group, and sometimes I just wander around the place in reverse order. Architecture is a little different from other places I’ve been to, some rooms have this arched ceilling, and I dont think I’ve seen it in this part of the world before. Part of the facade reminded me of Anhui province, then again it was some years ago so I might have mistaken it a little bit. I spent almost 2 hours at the Yamen complex. Going through all the rooms and gardens and courtyards. For details check other websites, at least I’ve seen many describing this place.

Upon exiting the place, a big wall with inscription awaits and it looks popular, so much that they named the road leading southwards something like the mural road. Its also a place where people wait for others, and the usual tourist photo enterprises congregate. You can take your photo dressed as a traditional Pingyao-ian, or sit on a decorated rickshaw pulled by an old man. Its not my cup of tea, and I’m wondering who in their right mind would want to use it. Then again, as I always said, if its there, it means someone is paying for it. Anyway on to the next destination…

Small gate marking the entrance to Yamen Complex

Main Entrance to Yamen Complex

All entrances come with these turnstiles

Yamen Complex: Main courtyard

These half buckets are ingenious and are everwhere in Pingyao. I think they’re fllled with a bit of sand.

And they make good photographic object!

This old guy was going around inside the complex, I believe asking if tourists wants to take pictures of him. For a price I’m sure.

Now this is an interesting architecture. Don’t think I’ve seen it like this with arched roofing in China.

This is a big courtyard inside the complex, with the foundations of a previous building still visible.

Guard’s Room close to the entrance to the complex.

A small altar I’ve found inside the Yamen Complex. The head of the small statue has been lobed off.

There are many gardens inside the complex. This is one of them, and is close to the exit.

New tourists coming in, while I’m leaving.

This is one of those signs in english that I just don’t understand fully.

Lei Yutai Residence:
This house belongs to the guy that started Rishengchang financial house. Its located to the south of Yamen Governmental Complex, and pretty close to the southern wall. On the map, there are quite a number of notable residences close to the Southern Wall, which makes me derive that most of Pingyao’s rich prefer to live in that part of town. The residence is in a part of town that is a little quieter than the bustle of the main streets. Other than the presence of a large performance centre, Lei Yutai’s residence is unique in that it doesn’t come with its own souvenir stand outside of the entrance. In fact, the guy taking care of the place is quite laid back as well. When I got there he was in a small booth and just signalled me to just wave the ticket’s barcode where the reader is. All venues that are covered by the main ticket will have an electronic turnstile that works through scanning a barcode on the larger than necessary ticket.

So once I get in, most of the residence is on the left. Got greeted by a golden bust of the man himself. Otherwise the rest of the residence is just that. To me it all looks the same here in China. You’ve seen one? Then you’ve seen them all. Alleyways, chambers with chairs facing in the same direction for receiving guests, and symmetrical architecture. I have yet to spot an ancient toilet though. I dont think I’ve even seen one at the Forbidden City in Beijing, much less this one. There is a part of the house where one could get up to the second floor but there’s not much of a view here. The private chambers with the cave like arched ceilings are quite unique to this place too. I don’t think I have ever seen one of those in China. At the entrance of this place, I’m reminded that the owner of this place based it on Chinese architecture AND his own personal taste. So that explains why.

These barriers are all over, forming a parameter around the core of Pingyao, preventing vehicles from going in, but with a cutout for cyclists to go through.

There are all these signs for public toilet. Its basically someone’s home and it doesn’t look too clean.

Lei Yutai’s residence and a bust of the man

This is one of the meting rooms where guests could either sit on a chair or on a platform (left)

Exit of the complex. No idea what the word in chinese meant.

Temple of Guanyu:
This one is a little bit off the map. I was hoping to find it smack next to Lei Yutai’s Residence but looks like the place is closed off and the roofing looks in disrepair. Roof wise, it looks like the old way to construct a roof is to first have some wooden beams, then place thin mats or thin planks after which the workers would put a layer of mud combined with straw and use the same thing to stick the final tiles together. Some of the worn down roofs show all these contents. I have had the chance to see some workers build a new roof and workers were shoveling chunks of combined mud and straws from ground level up scaffolding to the top of the building to be used as roofing agent.

Local Household

Back streets Pingyao

With the walls to the left of the car, some of the corridors are really narrow for cars.

Roofing in Pingyao is sometimes still made the traditional with straw reinforced earth used to stick the tiles together on the roof.

Cheng Huang Temple:
I don’t know why I bother having this one in this blog. I looked for it next to a fashionable hotel after the Confucian temple but this place eludes me. Perhaps it has some secret entrance which I didn’t manage to find. Needless to say I didn’t find it. Anyway, after a while, every temple looks the same and I can’t really recall what I saw in there other than the usual celestial inspired layout and a folklore and legend or two told by tour guides, sometimes very specific instructions and reward, as though its a veiled method to keep tourists occupied: if your coin lands there, then you will get good luck for 1 year, etc. I’ve heard so many of it I think they’re all made up. Come on! Ancient Chinese can’t be that petty and gullible!

Yingxun Gate:
This is the south gate to the city. Its renovated, and the main valid ticket is require and after you do the obligatory swipe of the barcode on the turnstile, you get to walk up a ramp to the top of the wall. This gate also comes with a tower and a complex set of gates below it to let carts and vehicles to get outside the town. There is a temple somewhere here but again I never managed to find it. Then again I was not trying too hard to find it. There is a respectable view of the South Street from here, but unfortunately pretty obscured by some trees some inconsiderate soul planted. Definitely require a 100mm or longer lens to do it since there’s a clearing between the gate and the start of the South Street. From here it is possible to take a walk along the wall, but I’m not sure how far. Considering most of the people coming here are tourists, I don’t think it will be possible to wander off too far. By the way, I found out that the ticket is only valid for one watch tower even though there are a few of them in the town. Once you visit one, it will not work any more for the other towers.

Entrance to gate

Stairs going up to Yingxun Gate

View of the main South Street in Pingyao, obscured by a strategically placed tree.

But it is still possible to take some compressed shops of the old town.

All these statues are on the gate’s platform.

And this is the view looking outside the walled old city of Pingyao

Yingxun Gate is supposed to have a temple. This has to be the entrance.

Confucian Temple:
After a long bit of wandering around from Lei Yutai’s Residence, mostly around the southern city wall, I got to the Confucian Temple. This is one of the major attraction here, seemingly the place where imperial examinations too place or where they celebrated, I guess modern sense, that’s where graduation happened. The main entrance is the usual you’d start to expect here. Turnstiles, and scanning the ticket barcode gets you in. This temple also comes with a big stone facade facing the entrance, and you can tell you’re in the right place by the number of electric carts loitering outside fishing for tourists. I’d go in here and get out in the northern exit.

This is easily the most spacious temple in Pingyao, at least the one I’ve seen so far. Just about everywhere, there are little wooden red blocks that tourists and I guess devotees could buy, write something and hang it on every crook and cranny and railing one could find. Good I guess for that bokeh laden picture. There are places to pray, places to walk around and exhibition on imperial examinations. Right before the northern exit, there is a big rectangular metal cauldron that seems to serve a decorative purpose back in its days and now just a place for tourists to throw money into. Oh yeah, I was more attracted by the naked wooden spacers that is used crisscrossed to support the heavy roof. Those must be hundreds of years old.

In one of the inner square, local tourists would hop over a little arch with a raised platform, probably for good luck. They would do this, then circle back to the starting point and do it again a couple of times. I find it amusing, though I forgot to count the number of times they would do it. I would guess something like 7 or 8 times since that’s the usual good luck number.

Somewhere deep in the complex is a photographic exhibition including local and 2 halls displaying Ansel Adams and Robert Capa. Not sure the theme of the exhibition.

Close to the Confucian temple at its Southern entrance

Which looks like this…

Right after the gate is this bridge, and when there’s a pool of water, tourists will throw coins at it, so the caretakers build these small platforms for them to miss, perhaps to throw more money at it!

Just about everything here has these red amulet thingy stringed to it. Has to be for good luck.

English signs are everywhere, although it doesn’t usually make sense.

I’m still wondering what the small platform is. If I had to guess, I think its for little people to go over the steps.

I like these old style roofs where they stack spacers to support a heavy roof

This is obviously an important piece of writing. However the plaque it was reproduced by the student of the guy that originally made it, whatever.

This is a temple. Not a temple without idols and a kneel pad.

Take your photos, and they will print it out to you onsite on this magic concealed inkjet printer.

Obviously they still know how to make the stuff the old way.

Jumping through the gate

Imperial examination mock up.

Yet another altar and idol.

Photographic exhibition area inside the temple

I like this facade somewhere close to the north exit.

Temple renovation in progress

I did spend some time standing here looking at how they did the roofing. The guy on the ground mixes earth with straw, then haul it up to the mid platform, and the second guy scoops it up to the roof. Just put it in between the roofing tiles and the lower layer of the roof.

North exit. That tour cart driver is having a siesta.

Qing Xu Guan Taoist Temple:
I don’t know if its because it’s starting to be late, whether its Friday today, or whether this place is out of the way. But at least there are no Chinese tour group and their loudspeakers and strange antics to bother me here. That makes this place one of my favourite location today. I think you know the drill now, swipe entrance ticket, go through the turnstile, admire the poster of the ticketing agents at work today all decked out in formalwear, walk through a big entrance and remembering not to step on the platform built to keep low level bad spirits from getting into the building and then being greeted by a big courtyard with some insignificant buildings to the right and left and the main hall directly in front.

The condition of this temple is a little more raw. Not much renovation has happened and what you see looks like the temple in its natural state. Wooden beams are no longer straight (if they were straight when new) and doors are starting to crack and requiring repair very soon. I prefer it this way rather than a building that’s listed as a few hundred years old but looking like it was just constructed yesterday and just happen to share the same location as the original building.

Taoist temples happen to have a little less figures to pray to. Buddhist temples are tops for statues. Anyway this is a nice place to go to get out of the tour groups and just to relax. At least the entrance fee is already included in your 150RMB ticket.

Main entrance to the Taoist Temple after passing through the turnstiles.

Main courtyard

When I was processing my photos, I noticed this guy is quite a number of photos, always in the same pose…

And here he is again.

There is this small area where old doors and statues are stored, perhaps due to renovation. Makes for good texture shots.

Temple. Idols.

Exit, not too flashy. In fact, this could be one of the least flashy exits in Pingyao.

Armed Escort Agency:
This place on the main East Street is a museum located in the place where the first Armed Escort Agency is located. To be precise, my map said that its the first in North China. Its a little to precise to have any meaning anymore. But I think its the first time I’ve seen an ancient armed escort. Armed escort agency, not the ones with pretty women for rent for social events. The whole complex means business. You walk in, discuss deals and then wait for mercenaries to pick up their stuff from the armory and join the gang. The whole place is pretty compact, not too much room to move around, but at the back there is a space where I guess practicing would have taken place. At this modern era, the square has been turned into a archery range where for 10RMB one will get to shoot 5 arrows from a toy gun at some straw target.

Which brings me to my next rant. I think I might have mentioned this before. It looks as though in China, whenever you work in a tourist attraction, the central government tells you to collect this much money and you send that much over to the central coffers for maintenance but you get a free will at everything else revenue generating. Depending on how creative the owners are, sometimes you get the usual drinks stall, sometimes a little more specific souvenirs and disneylandesque shop exit. This place has an archery range! Oh, and just about every main attraction in Pingyao has a lacquer shop closeby, usually at the exit once you get out of the complex. I guess a Chinese home that has just visited Pingyao would have quite a number of these sitting on their shelves.

I realised I don’t have that many pictures of the Armed Escort Agency. Perhaps I was getting tired at this point.

Archery section of the museum.

West Street – South Street Intersection:
By the time I finished with the agency, it is starting to get dark. Wandering back to the hotel, I passed by the poshest place I’ve seen in Pingyao so far, called Jing’s residence not too far away. The restaurants look posh to the max, with italian designed lamps and furnishing only a westerner would think is chinese-chic. A couple of locals outside complained that it was furnished to the taste of foreigners, which I cannot disagree, but I guess there would be quite a lot of rich local coal magnate that would love to flaunt their wealth just to shot it off a little bit.

This intersection, however is where everything touristic is located. Just about every shop sells some kind of souvenir. Don’ t ask me as I have no spent too much time in them, no space in my place for souvenirs except for photographs. There are street sellers here too to join in the capitalism. And bars with blaring western pop music and the ubiquitous rows of hard liquor and dark ambience. Looks out of place with farmers roaming outside in their two strokes.

Restaurants in this place also have the same menu outside, advertising local fare. It all has iPhone-style photos of dishes and some Chinglish explanation of what to expect in the dish. The buckwheat noodle dishes are quite good but the pictures make the honeycomb looking dish quite strange. Go local when you’re in Pingyao, when it comes to food. The beef here is quite nice, but they do make quite a lot of use of local vinegar in the local cooking. Most hostels and hotel has western breakfast in the morning, but why come all the way to Pingyao to have your butter and toast? You can have it when you get back home. Go chinese for breakfast.

Buns with no fillings being made for sale.

Jing’s Residence

Night markets spring up on the main tourist streets at night.

7 May 2011:
Rishengchang:
I can’t believe I missed this place on the first day. On the map that was provided to me by the hotel, there was a list of 4 or 5 former financial house, but this one is probably the most popular. I made a mistake starting the day late. At 10am, it was a disneyland. Packed to the brim with middle aged and old local tourists and their tour guide with the wavy flags and belt pack loud speakers.

Front trading hall. Plus plenty of tourists.

Tourists are herded around to “attractions”, leaving some areas in the complex empty.

The Rishengchang starts off with two chambers just after the main entrance, that looks like a pawnshop complete with counters, grills but its the clerks that get the view of the outside while the clients get the inside looking out the window to the main street. There are one on each side. I had my 20mm lens with me and was hoping to capture a shot of the whole counter uncluttered but there are just too many tourist groups there at the same time and they’re all business, herding tourists from one attraction to another as fast as possible. And it’s a conveyor belt of tourists in most attractions, which is why some complain that the historical sights could withstand centuries of wear and tear but no way could it stand up to this tourism mass production line. After the pawnshops are the accountant’s offices and a bunch of rooms for negotiating. In fact, they look like meeting rooms. There are big and small ones, obviously depending on the importance of the clients. There are some rooms for the guests to stay overnight as well, nicely decorated. I saw the kitchen, but as usual, ancient people don’t have need for toilets.

I didn’t stay long here. Couldn’t do so with all the people coming in all the time. I think I was already moving at half the speed of the production line, which is not a good thing with all the tight alleyways and people fighting for position. Just about every shot I make, there’s a tourist in the picture, except perhaps for shots of the ceilling.

Renting a bicycle:
Now, every morning I do my gmail checking and catching up on chat on my iPhone outside my hotel and a shop owner would come out to chat to me about renting a bike. What I know is that it cost a dirt cheap 10RMB for the whole day, and the bike looks heavy enough no one in their right mind would want to cart it away once you lock the rear wheel. So right after Rishengchang, I took the back alley back to the shop to pick up a bicycle for the rest of the day, while dodging electric carts. They’re all over the place in the small back streets in Pingyao.

I’m theorizing without much knowledge that when the government officials came to Pingyao for the first time and floated the idea of turning the whole of the old town into a big monument and charge tourists money, they probably gave the idea that the locals would be rich either opening up hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops or driving one of these electric buggies ferrying tourists around. In fact, I think they have schools to teach them how to drive it. I’ve seen many of them driving the cart in reverse (which is a necessity due to the tight alleys where no three point turn is possible). And if you’ve tried to do a reverse drive, its not that easy.

Getting around in a bicycle. Cheap and safe enough.

City Wall:
Cycling is easy enough, but avoiding dumb tourists is not. They sometimes get jolted by my bell, sometimes no. I start off shooting towards the eastern wall, and cycled along the small alleys where there are less tourists and then along the northern wall all the way to the other corner, and then down on the western wall. In some sections of the north wall, the inside of the wall is made of compacted earth that starts to be eroded a little bit. However all the watch towers are still intact. In fact the best place to take pictures of the wall is along the north and west side and on the outside since there is a nice buffer space between the wall and the new city.

Local at the less renovated part of the city wall.

Construction site

I exit the Western Wall at the Fengyi gate and the whole world just changed, from the tradition of the ancient city to the modern neon and signboards of modern Pingyao.

Shuanglin Temple:
What to do next? I have a bicycle, I don’t mind cycling a few kilometers, and thus, it would make some sense to go to Shuanglin Temple. According to my GPS its 5km or so on the main road and then turning left for another km. Was it a good idea? In a way yes, the way to the temple was downwind but I was fighting a strong headwind on the way back to Pingyao. The main road is travelled by a few tourist on tandem bicycles, electric bicycles, motorcycles, crazy Chinese car drivers that park in the middle of the road if they wish to make a stop, and big lorries carrying heavy load. On the right side of the road is a railway track. The way there is probably pretty dangerous, but my main concern was the heavy pollution on the road. Just about everything I had with me had a cake of dust by the time I got to Shuanglin Temple.

On the highway, cycling towards Shuanglin Temple

Shuanglin Temple main entrance.

There are many halls with many statues in it. Some of them are so dark, it was not that easy to shoot in there, not to mention it is supposed to be prohibited.

Main hall at Shuanglin, shot from the temple wall. This temple is fortified.

Entrance cost perhaps around 25RMB. I forgot the actual amount. There was not too many people there when I got to the temple so the ticket booth is also the security booth. Bicycle parking cost me 1RMB. This temple is surrounded by a fort-like wall. The buildings are not that new, which is a welcome sight. The first hall consists of 4 giant buddhist statues, more like demons. Inside the main hall is a big statue with elaborate ornaments that make the whole thing quite 3D-like, but fenced off by grills. The whole temple has a lot more of these smaller or similar sized halls, all of them with plenty of faded painted statues and carvings. All of them are quite elaborate and not every much restored. There are signs prohibiting photography and fire inside the building. Photography I guess flash photography, but the sign seems to prohibit every kind of picture taking, even with my D3s. Anyway, there are no one enforcing it when I was there. Fire???

As I mentioned earlier, the cycle back was a long hard work fighting the wind and wondering when I will get back to the town. Just for the fun of it, I went back through the new town and it was much more messy, busy, and noisy then the old town within the walls. Shops were all having some kind of promotion playing loud Chinese techno music, what I call the ass-shaker music, particularly useful for people on acid. There is a Dicos local fast food chain but I don’t recall seeing any western chain, hell, not even a KFC which is quite strange. Maybe I was on the wrong street. But in China you get KFCs on every corner!

I stopped for lunch once I got through the west gate, at one of the first restaurants. Ordered up some local stuff, and realised that the price of food outside of the tourist perimeter is almost half the price. Right after I also found the cheapest haircut I’ve seen so far in China, 5RMB, and I thought that the shop owner did a good job at it, pretty confident. I guess for 5RMB she should not be faulted for making any mistake. It was a hot day and I needed a trim and I got it for half the price of a bowl of noodle. A new benchmark has been set in the price of haircut.

Time now to return the bicycle and have a final walk around the small alleys before sunset for a final photoshoot at the City tower in the middle of the town.

City wall exterior

City tower:
I don’t know if there is another name for this thingy. Its in the middle of Nan Da Jie and is the local landmark, the tallest structure in the old town and where one could get the iconic picture of the old houses lining Nan Da Jie. Entrance is to one side of the street, where a lady is only glad to receive 5RMB from me to climb up two sets of narrow, steep and dark staircase to the second floor. There is no way for ordinary people to go up to the third floor. There are some stairs going to the third floor but the ceilling doesn’t look like it is strong enough. In the second floor are some buddhist statues but the reason to come up here is the view. All rooftops of the town is visible here, though only some of the entrance towers are visible, and I can’t recall seeing the city walls from here. I spent at least half an hour up there waiting for the sunset. There is a heavy cloud cover so sun disappears behind it 2-3 degrees before it dips below the horizon, which means that I will not get the amber sky that I wanted. The current light would be all I would get, cameras out, grab a few shots and time to go down before it gets dark.

Sunset on my last day in Pingyao

8 May 2011:
On my final day here, I’d wake up earlier than normal, before 7am and took a walk along the old streets, before the weekend tourists come in. Friday was much better than the weekends and it is possible to see the dramatic increase in number of tourists during weekends. What a shock it was, even at 7am, before the attractions are opened to public the tour groups starting shuttling into the centre of the town via electric carts packed with noisy local tourists. There are some pockets of calm, but it is not possible to take any pictures without tourists at this time. Maybe 5am would be a better time.

After a quick breakfast, and a free shuttle to the bus station provided by the hotel, I’m on the 26RMB bus to Taiyuan. It is packed by the time I got there, and there’s no space at the back of the bus to put my bag so I just dumped my backpack next to the driver and proceeded to squeeze into a window seat next to a guy too engrossed watching a local supertyphoon disaster movie.

Along the way there were periods where the road is just jammed, and no way for me to determine if it was accident or some official inspection, just that there were truck drivers chatting on the road side and some munching on melon seeds. Obviously I could see this only because my bus driver doesn’t queue up, and we took the oncoming lane to bypass the traffic. Before long the traffic was smooth again and I go back into my nap. The bus took a reverse route similar to the one that I took to Pingyao a few days back and stopped at Jiannan bus station. As usual in China, you could request for any stop along the way and it does drop off passengers that way.

Zhengjia Hotel central courtyard

*End*

Look for this block of shops

To get there, take line 3 orange line to 충무로 station and get out at exit 5. Continue straight towards Myeongdong and one you pass a big tower called Kukdong Building, turn right and immediately turn left on the next small junction. About ten meters later on your right will be a small camera shop called Yeongsang 영상 Camera. Go up to the second floor and there is a black and white photo developing shop. In a small corner of the shop, the old man there will CLA your mechanical camera.

This is what the first floor looks like. Follow the sign to the black & white shop upstairs.

Mine took only 2 hours. About the time it takes to develop a roll of film and cost a reasonable 100,000₩. The finder all clear now an all mechanical parts humming along, it’s cheap and at the same time fast. I was initially expecting a week before pickup. Who knew I could browse the camera shops around the area and pick it up on the same day.

Taking apart the M2

Highly recommended shop. Thanks to rangefinderforum.com for the initial directions. Shop opens 10am to 7pm. However the owner is sometimes downstairs in a used camera shop.

Flamingoes on Lago Argentino

6 January 2011

El Calafate is the largest town here at Parc Nationale de Glacieriares but it is still a small town with tens of thousand inhabitants. It is named after Calafate berry that is close to blueberry and make very good jam and sorbet. I know because I’ll be on a lookout for it at every meal. This is where the airport is, a port of entry\ for most tourists to this region of Patagonia. As you would expect, tourist shops and fancy restaurants with Argentinian themes are all over the main street and once you step off one block away it dies down to the feeling of a small sleepy town. There is even a casino, just in case tourists are sick of the mountains and decided to go back to something more “exciting”.

Welcome to El Calafate, I guess.

The Casino

The drinking hole…

… and some local souvenirs…

Not to mention some shopping places.

Old trucks

Lago Argentino

Outside the western end of the city is a nature preserve with flamingoes standing on one leg. They looked pretty far away, even with a 600mm telephoto you’d probably get just a pink speck. The water is not deep at all and i don’t think it is worth wading in it to get close to the flamingoes. They would just fly away anyway. But there is probably nothing much more to do other than to look at the tourist shops and buy a fridge magnet or some artisanal chinese-made souvenir, so the best thing to do would be to take a good walk to the lake. It is, after all, a place for some R&R.

It is a pretty long walk. A few kilometers at least, and takes me through the heart of the tourist El Calafate. The main street is full of tourist memorabilia and outdoor shops, parilla-style and italian restaurants plus a casino smack in the middle of it all, clearly intended to be the centre of attraction. The prices of the restaurants on the main street is comparable to the ones that you find in Buenos Aires, which is normal I guess. Off the main street the prices seem to drop somewhat. There are pockets of area where the shops seem a little more upscale, kind of like the place where rich tourists would visit. I don’t get the idea of looking for a quaint shop in the middle of a town that is obviously not quaint. Its like looking for local hamburger in the provinces in China. It just doesn’t fit in, but you see that in every tourist town. Perhaps that’s how you tell a tourist town from a real functioning town with its own economy that doesn’t really bother with tourist dollars.

Parilla, how could I resist…

Saying the people here are carnivores is an understatement. This is a platter for 2. 2!

The cars here are a mix of old and new. The old cars here are pretty old and badly maintained. It’s probably not such a bad thing since this town is so small people don’t drive faster than what is required with a first gear anyway. I did see some speeding along a secondary road but most cars were going 20kmph at the most. Even at that speed it takes 15 minutes to get from one end of the town to the other end. Then on the other end of the spectrum are the fast cars, and I have no idea where they are planning to go in such a hurry.

We get to the nature preserve and noticed that while there is no man made barrier between us and the birds, one would have to go over marshes and mud to get close. And don’t let the distance fool you, it looks quite far away, but in actual fact it is even farther than that. So I’m happy enough to stay close to the main road and hope to get some shots of the flamingoes from there. There are some birds around closer to the main road as well, so I take those as easy prey. The flamingoes get to escape from my camera this time. I figured out if I could get close enough and getting mud all over me from doing so, there is no guarantee that it will not just decide to all fly off at the same time. I think flamingos could fly.

Generally there is not much to do here. But considering there are not too many towns in the vicinity, El Calafate would make a good base with Moreno glacier less than 2 hours to the west and Cerro Torre and Fitzroy 3-4 hours drive away around Lago Argentino and Viedma to the northwest. Next, bring on Chile!

Waking up to sheeps outside the hotel window!

Southern Lap Wing

Proceed to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile…