City Wall of Pingyao, Shanxi, China
4.5 (393 reviews) Spent Ranking #2 in Pingyao County Points of Interest & Landmarks
Awesome ancient defensive walled-city
The impressive, ancient 6.2 kilometres in length, and averaging 10 metres in height, wall around the city is estimated to have been built over the 827BC to 782BC period. Since the 14th century, this has been a city of the Chinese Han people. Inside the city walls, there are temples of Shuanglin and Zhenguo. There is a lot of history here, and since 1982, it has been protected by a number of Chinese laws, including, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics. The ancient city walls of China a very spectacular. Other than in size, this has many of the same characteristics as the ancient walls of Xi’an and Nanjing.
Address
Within Pingyao County, Pingyao County 031100 China
Current local date and time now
Monday, April 29, 2024, 20:30
User Ratings
4.5 based on (393 reviews)
Reviews
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5Heather3214 5:00 PM May 28, 2012
A true jewel
It is a bit of a trick getting to Pingyao, but well worth it. The walled, preserved city is a Chinese tourist area but is so far out of the way that it was the least crowded of all the areas we visited. I believe the city was founded 1500 years ago. While we stayed inside the walls in a (the!) western style hotel, we ate at courtyard style hotels and got to enjoy them also. There are towers, walls, temples and sidewalk shows to enjoy. There are also many tourist shops. To reach the city we took the fast train (5 hrs) from Beijing, then a taxi from Taiyuan. Be sure to walk away from the train station to hire a taxi. One taxi set a price of 200Y then backed out. Once we hired a taxi (for about Y350) he said that no one would take us for 200Y without scamming us for more money later. The taxi ride is about an hour. On the way back to Taiyuan we took the train. It was as local a train as I would recommend but we survived for the hour.
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4Aileng N 5:00 PM Jun 18, 2012
Great but disappointing experience
It was the best part of our trip in Pingyao. Unfortunately part of the wall was closed for renovation. We could only do a section of the wall as they won't let you back on the wall once you exit at the point where it was closed off. We were told we should have walked back to where we started (another 30 min.) and do the other section that was opened.
