Birds Flyin' High...: The Ancient Walled City of Pingyao

Pingyao is considered to be the best-preserved ancient town in China. Not only is it still fully enclosed by its ancient city wall, (most of these were destroyed during Mao's “Cultural Revolution”, which sought to enforce communism by eradicating capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society) but its cobbled streets and buildings remain much as they were in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Pingyao street scene - no cars in the old town centre

I was staying in an old courtyard hotel complete with a traditional “kang” bed - a heated sleeping platform - except that the instructions for turning on the heat were somehow lost in translation and I spent the night shivering under the blankets. The temperature was significantly lower than in Beijing and it was close to 0 at night… a big shock to the system after Myanmar, but a taste of the English winter to which I’ll be returning!

My hotel in Pingyao - very quaint, but very cold!

I had just under two days in Pingyao and spent them in quite a leisurely fashion – just wandering the streets soaking up the atmosphere and occasionally popping into one of the historical buildings. These included the City God Temple, the Confucian Temple, Qingxu Guan (the Taoist Temple) and notably the Rishengchang Financial House Museum. Pingyao's merchants actually created China's first banks and cheques, to facilitate the transfer of vast amounts of silver from one place to another. Rishengchang was originally a dye shop, but went on to become China's first draft bank and eventually expanded to 57 branches nationwide!

The accountant's office, in the original Rishengchang Bank

Guarding the Taoist Temple

The City God Temple

The Confucian Temple

Pingyao was a lot more touristy than I’d been expecting, although at the same time not very well set up for foreigners (most tourists are domestic). There were a few basic signs in English in some of the historical buildings but I didn't feel like I was getting a really good feel for what I was looking at. At one point I rented an audio-guide – only to discover it was in Chinese only. Not quite sure what the girl was thinking when she rented it to me!

On the second afternoon I also took a short walk along the city walls, which date from 1370. It was interesting to be able to peer down on life below in the many walled courtyards.

On the city walls

Looking down on the narrow Pingyao streets

Further from the main tourist centre there were quieter lanes where it was possible to catch a glimpse of real life playing out. Those were the parts which I liked the most.