Raise the Red Lantern

In the massage parlour we heard about a famous house with 6 major courtyards and over a hundred rooms located closeby Pingyao. We look it up in our guide and it appears that the famous Chinese movie Raise the Red Lantern has been filmed there. We both haven¡¯t seen the movie but are interested enough to have a look. It¡¯s on the way to Beijing anyway!

This place is touristy. As soon as we arrive people run up to us on the carpark to sell souvenirs. But michel keeps on driving circles and circles leaving the vendors baffled for a while. But they are persistent and as soon as we get out of the car, we are surrounded. One girl wants us to have lunch in her families restaurant. We¡¯re not hungry yet and have a look at the famous house first.

We follow the touristy shops and then come to the entrance. Nice thing about china is that entrance tickets also are postcards. But when we enter the house a lady makes two large holes in it, so we cannot sell the tickets anymore but also making the postcards useless. Michel tries to convince the lady to use a stamp but without any luck.

The house is nice with all the traditional courtyards. The redlanterns are still there and we wonder what the movie is like. The courtyard and the adjacent rooms give a good insight in the way the family lives hundreds of years ago. One thing particularly catches our sight and that¡¯s shoes of about 15 cm. Jason explains that little feet were a sign of beauty and that¡¯s why in the old days the feet of little girls were broken (!) and then taped to keep them small. A horrible idea if you ask us?!

When we leave the museum, the girl of the restaurant is still waiting in the cold. We feel sorry and head to her families restaurant. There we have lunch and while eating we discuss it¡¯s not wise to eat in a touristy place like this. And yes, as soon as we want to pay, the price suddenly has doubled. Jason can¡¯t stand this kind of manners and argues the price back to the original one! Good one Jason, nice work!!!

According to the schedule we were supposed to drive only 100 kilometers. But as we had a big lunch we decide to drive on to… another walled city. We arrive there late in the evening and find a reasonable place to sleep.

In the massage parlour we heard about a famous house with 6 major courtyards and over a hundred rooms located closeby Pingyao. We look it up in our guide and it appears that the famous Chinese movie Raise the Red Lantern has been filmed there. We both haven¡¯t seen the movie but are interested enough to have a look. It¡¯s on the way to Beijing anyway!

This place is tourist. As soon as we arrive people run up to us on the carpark to sell souvenirs. But michel keeps on driving circles and circles leaving the vendors baffled for a while. But they are persistent and as soon as we get out of the car, we are surrounded. One girl wants us to have lunch in her families restaurant. We¡¯re not hungry yet and have a look at the famous house first.

We follow the touristy shops and then come to the entrance. Nice thing about china is that entrance tickets also are postcards. But when we enter the house a lady makes two large holes in it, so we cannot sell the tickets anymore but also making the postcards useless. Michel tries to convince the lady to use a stamp but without any luck.

The house is nice with all the traditional courtyards. The redlanterns are still there and we wonder what the movie is like. The courtyard and the adjacent rooms give a good insight in the way the family lives hundreds of years ago. One thing particularly catches our sight and that¡¯s shoes of about 15 cm. Jason explains that little feet were a sign of beauty and that¡¯s why in the old days the feet of little girls were broken (!) and then taped to keep them small. A horrible idea if you ask us?!

When we leave the museum, the girl of the restaurant is still waiting in the cold. We feel sorry and head to her families restaurant. There we have lunch and while eating we discuss it¡¯s not wise to eat in a touristy place like this. And yes, as soon as we want to pay, the price suddenly has doubled. Jason can¡¯t stand this kind of manners and argues the price back to the original one! Good one Jason, nice work!!!

According to the schedule we were supposed to drive only 100 kilometers. But as we had a big lunch we decide to drive on to… another walled city. We arrive there late in the evening and find a reasonable place to sleep.