Shanghai > Pingyao

A mostly frustrating day in the Shanghai office for various reasons, but then off to the airport to catch a flight to Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, where I rendezvous'd with Liz & the girls and our Australian friends Colin & Vanessa and their two children. From there we had a 2-hour drive south in a minibus on a motorway chocabloc of trucks (never seen so many in my life - a sure sign of a booming economy), arriving Pingyao 11pm. Our courtyard hotel - comfortable but basic - looked like it was straight out of Raise the Red Lantern. Particularly odd were the dimensions of the bed: wide enough to accommodate six but very short so that my legs dangled over the end.