Ping Yao Ancient Town

The Ping Yao County is located near the middle reaches of the Yellow River in the north of china and adjoins the Tai Yuan basin.

Ping Yao ancient town, along with Lang Zhong in Sichuan, Li Jiang in Yunnan and She Zhou in Anhui, are famed as the "Four best-preserved great ancient towns" in China. The Ping Yao County was called "Ancient Tao" in the past and was built to defend the enemy from the south in Ming Dynasty. After a dozen times of repairing and refurbishing by several ancient emperors, Ping Yao town turned into a magnificent landscape. The 6163 meters long, 12 meters tall city wall, separated the 2.25 square meters town into two distinct worlds. The streets, shops and buildings inside the wall remained Ming and Qing dynasty styled while the part on the other side of city wall become the Modern City. This is a place where the ancient and the modern combine and embrace with each other, ensuring a visit here an inspirational experience.

It is even more amazing when overlooking the Ping Yao ancient town. The city wall with one gate at each side of the south and north, and two gates at each side of the east and the west, form like a tortoise. The southern gate is the head of the tortoise, and two wells outside the gate form the eyes of the tortoise; the northern gate resembles the tail while the other 4 gates being the stretching limbs. Therefore, The Ping Yao ancient town is also called “The tortoise town"

Ping Yao town used to be a central gathering place which hosted large Banks and financial institutions. There are a large number of historic buildings such as folk houses, temples and shops which date back to Qing Dynasty. The elaborate layout and meticulous architectural style represented by the Ping Yao ancient town show the visitors a real image of the china's ancient culture and the distinct national features.