day 69: 临汾(linfen) - 临汾(linfen) = 10,5km

My friends know: I’m a lazy pig.

But I left my hotel this morning:

My friend 卞彬 (bian bin) who works for a local news station was going to shoot a tiny feature about me:

So we went around and I did what I do: walking and taking pictures and asking for the way.

We also tried to figure out the mysterious “molehill” with a couple of friends:

They say it might be a mountain.

I say I’ll go check it out then.

Well, I didn’t get too far today. Basically only moved within the city limits.

There’s a place in the south part of town that’s called 尧庙 (yao temple):

This is a huge complex originally built during the Tang-dynasty (唐 618-907), although most of what can be seen today is either from later dynasties or has been completely rebuilt a couple of years ago.

It’s all dedicated to the mythical 尧帝:

…one of the five legendary forefathers of Chinese civilization.

Another one of those five is 伏羲 (fuxi - November 29th), by the way.

The whole site is still surprisingly large today.

It used to be at least three times as big, though.

Running around with my friend 卞彬, I had some fun putting up my tripod here and there in the blistering cold and taking night shots of things:

A pillar.

A gate (built only a few years ago).

For this one, some friendly dudes agreed to backlight the tree with the headlights of their truck:

It’s still snowing, by the way.

I’ll put the gaiters back on tomorrow.

And get back on the highway.

Soundtrack: Descendents - “When I Get Old”

—total: 974,3km