Harmony Guesthouse, Pingyao, Shanxi Province, China

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Homepage: http://www.py-harmony.com/
See Also: http://wikitravel.org/en/Pingyao

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Reviews (1)

Filled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One Point by tom on 21 May 2008

Harmony is probably the best hostel I've ever stayed in. We arrived here to pick up some sleeper train tickets for Xi'an after a mad dash and nightmare journey from Wutai Shan, only to find that we were too late, and the tickets had been cancelled.

Fortunately there was a room available for us to stay in overnight, giving us a chance to see something of lovely Pingyao, and Jipu (aka "Jackie") the fab owner was able to get us on a bus to Xi'an the following day. We suspected that this situation might have been somewhat engineered, as the guy at Datong CITS who had booked the train tickets for us (via Harmony) did not tell us that we needed to pick them up before 12noon, which would have been impossible coming from Wutai Shan the same day, which he knew we were doing. He had also been incredibly keen that we stayed in Pingyao, which we had not intended due to our tight schedule. Anyway, whatever the reason for the situation, Harmony came as a breath of fresh air.

After the brashness and hassle of Wutai Shan, the very basic accommodation, and the nightmare journeys to get there and away, Harmony (and Pingyao in general) was a big relief. We got a lovely traditional Chinese room with a huuuuuge bed, facing out onto one of the main courtyards. It was quiet, clean and comfortable, and fairly reasonably priced at 140RMB.

Jackie gave us tea when we arrived, was very apologetic that he'd had to cancel the tickets (not knowing that we were on our way), soothed our nerves and got our onward trip to Xi'an sorted for the next day. He speaks great English which, despite my desire to learn and speak Mandarin, can come in very handy at times. He and his wife seem to understand in detail what Western travellers look for in a hostel/guesthouse, and Harmony is the embodiment of that.

Aside from the the lovely rooms, there's free wifi/internet, cheap payphone, plentiful hot water, and local food, breakfast and proper coffee served in the lovely common room at the front. The atmosphere is brilliantly relaxed, with a real mix of travellers, and no attitude or posing. This is a great place to take a day or two out from the sometimes hectic experience of travelling in China, relax, regroup, plan onward journeys and see something of historic Pingyao. Top marks to Jackie and his team for creating somewhere truly special.

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