Taiyuan March 16

March 16

This morning we caught an early flight out of Chengdu, having to get up at 0500 and go to the airport. Our flight took off at around 0730, so we had very little time at the airport. We arrived to Taiyuan at around 1000 and immediately went to a Hanting Hotel which was downtown Taiyuan, a very good location.

After getting some lunch and relaxing for about an hour we got a couple of taxis to the Twin Pagodas or Shuang Ta Temple. Sunee and I had been here two years ago on our Courtyard Adventure Trip. It was fairly cold and there were only half a dozen people visiting the temple. The management at the temple were very friendly and helpful. Did I say it was cold?

01_Flttotaiyuan

A view from the airplane, about half an hour from Taiyuan.

02_HotelWait

Waiting for our taxis to go to the Twin Pagodas.

03_Tourists

Bangkok tourists not used to the cold weather. Actually Jesse and Sumalee live in Wisconsin and Minnesota so they were very much used to this temps. In fact, it probably felt like spring to them.

04_AncientBuilding

Got all the pictures the first time around but I had to have something to do. Check them out.

05_PagodaShot

06_Photosession

07_Photographer

08_PrayerRoom

09_Rafters

10_Rooflion

11_twins

12_Shuanghdrgrounds

13_SingleHDR

14_hexview1

Very much like pictures taken by everyone who visits the temple. It is nice, well laid out with enough ancient buildings to keep one interested. The sales shop ended up where we spent a lot of time. The guy in there was friendly and anxious to make some sales so we helped him out a lot. Everyone involved was happy.

We had a hard time finding taxis back to the hotel, so we took a bus to a busier intersection to get our taxis. That evening we negotiated for our trip to Mount Wutai. Got a van, hotel reserved and entry tickets all for a decent price. We were ready to start our trip to the Holy Mountains of China (or at least one of them).