Visitors stroll at night in Pingyao's old town. [Photo by Harri Jarvelainen/China Daily]

The majority of us boarded a bus at the railway station that would become our most permanent home for the next five days, as our itinerary had us changing hotels four times in that time.

As an editor at China Daily, I had worked on stories from two previous trips to Shanxi this year and asked to attend the next, impressed by the stories and photos from previous participants. I was initially disappointed to see our itinerary, as I had been hoping to visit the Hanging Monastery and the Yungang Grottoes, two of the province's best-known tourist sites.

I was happy to see Pingyao's Ancient City included, as the town built during the Ming (1368－1644) and Qing (1644－1911) dynasties is a still thriving residential and business area. We returned to the old town after lunch, when the rain had stopped, to visit the Pingyao International Photography Festival Exhibition and tour the former government buildings. For a journalist unaccustomed to "being" the story, it felt surreal as photographers took photos of other photographers looking at photographs, while we were also filmed for a documentary, snapped by local visitors and had aerial video shot of us by a drone-mounted camera.

At certain stops during our visit, particularly at tranquil temples or quiet courtyards, the loud buzzing of the drone broke the peace and many jokes were made about needing a giant fly swat, but the video it achieved was spectacular, particularly of the Hukou Waterfall in Linfen.