On the third day of our trip to Shanxi, we arrived at the ancient city of Pingyao. This is known as a living sample for studying ancient Chinese cities, let's take a look together!

About PingYao Ancient City

Pingyao Ancient City is located on Kangning Road in Pingyao County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. It is located in the central part of Shanxi Province and was first built during the reign of King Xuan of the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is the most well preserved ancient county town in China today. The entire city is like a turtle crawling southward, hence the name "Turtle City".

The Pingyao Ancient City is composed of a large architectural complex consisting of city walls, shops, streets, temples, and residential buildings. The entire city is symmetrically arranged, with the city building as the axis and the South Street as the axis, forming a feudal ritual pattern of left city god, right government office, left Confucian temple, right Wu temple, east Taoist temple, and west temple, covering a total area of 2.25 square kilometers; The street pattern in the city is in the shape of "soil", and the overall layout follows the direction of the Eight Diagrams. The Eight Diagrams pattern is composed of four streets, eight alleys, and seventy-two Youyan Alleys. The South Street, East Street, West Street, Yamen Street, and Chenghuangmiao Street form a stem shaped commercial street; The shops in the ancient city are built along the street, with sturdy and tall storefronts, painted under the eaves, and carved on the beams. The residential houses behind the storefronts are all courtyard houses made of blue bricks and gray tiles.

In the ancient city, we visited Pingyao County Government, which is currently the most well preserved and largest feudal county government office in the country; We saw the only tower style high-rise building located in the center of Pingyao Ancient City - Pingyao City Building; We have experienced the old site of the Nisshengchang ticket shop, which has a complete layout, is decorated as usual, and has the characteristics of commercial architecture and local characteristics of the Ming and Qing dynasties... These scenic spots make us feel as if we have returned to the past with the tide of history.

See Pingyao cuisine again

We tasted the unique northern flavor of Shanxi near the ancient city of Pingyao. Pingyao beef, naked oats, tanned meat, and lamb offal are all unique dishes, and when people are in the north, the cuisine is unforgettable.