Before Mao, two thousand Chinese cities were surrounded by walls.  Beijing’s wall was torn down soon after he came to power, and today only a few small reconstructed portions stand alongside the city’s Second Ring Road, which traces the path where the wall used to be.  Beijing was not alone; throughout China, city walls were seen as impediments to progress and torn down or simply allowed to fall apart.  No such fate for Pingyao, seventy miles southwest of Taiyuan; its city wall remains, courtesy of its insistent residents.  Pingyao is the last fully walled city in China.

The wall surrounding Pingyao was originally constructed around the time the city was established 28 centuries ago, during the Zhou dynasty.  It was expanded and upgraded to forty feet high and four miles long at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, six centuries ago - a recent addition.

The city within bustles with activity along its narrow streets.  No modern buildings can be found here; Pingyao appears much as it did during the Qing dynasty.  At that time, the city was the biggest business and financial center in China, courtesy of its location along the major trade route between Beijing and Xi’an, and courtesy of local merchants who established China’s first banks here.  All those business tycoons mentioned on the previous page lived in this area of Shanxi Province for a reason: Pingyao was China’s Manhattan.  Some of the city’s courtyards where those old banks resided are now museums.

Elaborate decorations on the eaves of a Pingyao storefront, a welcomingly common sight in the city.  As the Qing dynasty came to an end about a hundred years ago, so did the banks of Pingyao.  The country’s banking center moved to Shanghai as trade activity picked up along the east coast.  With no money coming into the city, no upgrades or renovations took place, and Pingyao and its appearance became frozen in time.

The Bell Tower, the tallest structure in Pingyao, at the center of the city.  Its height is about half again that of the city wall.

Trinkets for good luck at a Pingyao store near the Bell Tower.  In China, it’s not unusual to see these hanging from car rearview mirrors.

Dusty red lanterns along a street near one of the two east gates of the city, which can be seen in the distance.  Cars are not allowed in this area, nor in much of the city - just around the main entrance at one of the two west gates.

Local children and watermelon in a Pingyao courtyard.

Pingyao merchants today: a twisty-bread vendor.

A resident outside the city wall.  Pingyao is a photographer’s dream; I wish our group had been able to spend much more time here - like, a couple of days.  As it was, this was the final stop on a very long and busy day of sightseeing, and we had a trip to make to Xi’an the following day.  So at sunset, it was back to Taiyuan to rest up for the next day’s drive.