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Why visit Pingyao?

Pingyao is a walled town in Shanxi province in northern China, and one of the best-preserved old cities in the country. Its massive walls date from the Ming dynasty and still wrap all the way around the old town, and inside them a grid of streets is lined with grey-brick houses, shop fronts and courtyards from the Ming and Qing periods. The Ancient City of Ping Yao is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in the nineteenth century it was an important centre of Chinese banking.

You can walk along the top of the walls for views over the tiled roofs, then explore Ming-Qing Street and climb the City Tower in the middle of town. Rishengchang, often described as China's first draft bank, is now a museum, and the old county government office shows how a magistrate's court worked in imperial times. Just outside town, Shuanglin Temple is known for its painted clay sculptures. Many visitors stay in restored courtyard hotels, some with traditional heated brick beds called kang, and the lanes become calm in the evening once the day-trippers leave. Pingyao is a short high-speed train ride from Taiyuan, and the best time to visit is spring or autumn, when the weather is mild.

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