Pingliang. Why it had merited inclusion in my less than reliable guide book still eluded me. True, it is the largest town along the northern valley route from Dingxi to Xi’an. But that hardly makes it notable. You suspected one of the contributors had made a brief stop there, stayed in the one hotel it mentions. And was short of copy.
My next stop, Jingchuan, similar but smaller. Pleasant enough. But there’s a sameness with many of these provincial towns and cities. They begin to blur after a while. Perhaps because they’ve grown substantially in a relatively short period. Just a few decades.
Whatever you might think of English county towns or cities like – Cheltenham, Bath or Bristol for example – they are at least different. As befits the varied influences on their development, be that Roman or Regency, or just plain seafaring.
