I and my roommates traveled to The Ancient City of Ping Yao during the last Qingming Festival. Because of my classmate, Jiading’s warm reception, we had a nice trip in Shanxi province. If you have Travel to Beijing before and want to create a new experience during your China Tours, The Ancient City of Ping Yao may be you next choice. Let me introduce it in detail:
1. 
The history of the Ancient City of Ping Yao
Pingyao is a Chinese city and county in Shanxi province. It was built in the western Zhou dynasty. As a result, it has a history of more than 2700 years. Pingyao is carefully preserved as an example of traditional Chinese city. It was the major commercial centre for the whole China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Therefore, it was included in the World Heritage list in December, 1997.
2. The present situation of Ping Yao
In the eyes of Chinese , Ping Yao has three treasures: Ping Yao city wall, Zhenguo Temple and Shuanglin Temple.The Ancient City of Ping Yao is surrounded by the ancient city wall. The wall is about 12 meters high with a perimeter of 6000 meters. And there is a moat of 4 meters wide round the city wall. Then comes Zhenguo Temple and Shuanglin Temple, they have the world’s precious paints with colorful sculptures.
3. The accommodation in Ping Yao
We choose to check in in a local hotel inside the city wall of Ping Yao. It is a quadrangle in fact. In south China, people are used to live in houses like this and we call it siheyuan or four-side enclosed courtyards. As we can see from its name, these courts have inward-facing houses on four sides and they are closed in by enclosure walls. Even though it remains the style it used to have, it has the supply of hot water, sewage system and electricity. Therefore, living in houses like this is convenient. What is more, the bed in the room impress me a lot with its huge size. In south China, they call it Kang. It looks special because it is as long as 6 meters and we can put firewood under the bed to keep it warm! Even though we do not keep warm in this way, it is still quite interesting to see such a special bed.
4. The way to travel in the Ancient City of Ping Yao
In order to protect environment (reduce the carbon dioxide emissions) and keep the traffic flowing in Ping Yao, cars are not allowed to enter the city. Therefore, we can choose to travel by bike or on foot. Bicycles are allowed and there are also bicycles for rent.
5. 
What to eat in Ping Yao
As I have mentioned, Ping Yao is a county in Shanxi. Therefore, most of the dishes are made of flour. And they also use buckwheat flour to create some new flavor. During our tourism in Ping Yao, almost all the dishes contain food made of flour. So we miss vegetable pretty much. As a result, I strongly recommend you to have some vegetable salad while enjoying the Ping Yao dishes.
Because my classmate’s warm reception, everything was arranged carefully in advance. So if you want to travel to the ancient city of Ping Yao,Xi An. You had better collect the information of this city first. And then book your hotel beforehand for the sake of the coming National Day in China. (It may be quite crowded everywhere in China during 1st,Oct to 7th Oct.)
Hope you enjoy your china travel.
Related posts:
