A Window To Ancient China: Charming Pingyao

#ancienttown Pinyao is a museum city, there are about a hundred of them on its relatively small territory. All of them are protected by the state and included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. At the same time, ordinary people live within the old city, life is in full swing here. Unlike most of the historical buildings of Imperial China, which today are uninhabited and serve only as museums, with crowds of tourists, Pinyao is a living city. This is precisely his special attractive power. On the one hand, everything there is imbued with the spirit and culture of ancient China, but at the same time life goes on as usual. Pinyao has the fame of a city of banks! Therefore, while walking through Pinyao, you can learn something about the Chinese credit system of the 19th century. The origin of Pinyao as a center of commerce and trade began at the end of the 16th century, when the wealthy artisans, dyers and merchants of the province realized that Pinyao was an excellent place for trade. After all, two trade routes intersected in the city. Shops, exchange offices or mini-manufactories began to appear in every house. And in the 19th century, Pinho experienced a short but turbulent period of economic prosperity. In 1824, the first bank in China, Zhi Sheng Chang, opened here. Pinyao is becoming a rich shopping center, and he had to protect himself. The wall, built in 1370, was dilapidated. Later, it was gradually restored, from the inside with packed clay, from the outside with the help of baked bricks. There are 3,797 Siheyuan in Pinyao City. These are such square courtyards, along the perimeter of which houses are located. There are no windows in the outer walls of these courtyards. Approximately 400 courtyards have been preserved almost in their original form. Most of the buildings have wooden floors and stone exterior walls. The roofs of the houses are covered with gray tiles. Some are decorated with stone columns. Those houses that are richer are decorated with decorative architectural superstructures and animal stucco.