Pingyao Ancient City

Pingyao ancient city, located in Shanxi Province, is a famous cultural city with a history of more than 2700 years. Together with Langzhong in Sichuan, Lijiang in Yunnan and Shexian in Anhui, which are also the second batch of national historical and cultural cities, it is known as the "four most well preserved ancient cities". It is also the only ancient county in China that has successfully applied for world cultural heritage with the whole ancient city.

Pingyao was formerly known as "ancient pottery". In the early Ming Dynasty, the city wall was built to defend against foreign invasion. In the third year of Hongwu (1370 A.D.), it was rebuilt and expanded on the basis of the old wall, and it was completely covered with bricks.

Pingyao used to be the financial center of China in the late Qing Dynasty. When you walk into this once prosperous ancient city, you can feel the culture of Shanxi Merchants everywhere. There are six gates in the ancient city. The north gate is near Pingyao bus station, the west gate is near Pingyao railway station, and the south gate and west gate are the places with the most tourists. You don't need a ticket to enter the ancient city. If you want to climb the city wall, visit the ticket number and other scenic spots, you need to buy a pass to the ancient city.

Pingyao Ancient City

Pingyao ancient city is located in the middle of Shanxi Province. It was built in the period of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty and expanded in 1370. It has a history of more than 2700 years. It is the most complete ancient city in Han nationality area of China.

Pingyao, Shanxi Province, is known as one of the "four best preserved ancient cities", and is also one of the only two ancient cities in China that successfully applied for world cultural heritage with the whole ancient city.

Pingyao ancient city was listed in the world cultural heritage list in 1997. In 2009, Pingyao ancient city was rated as the most complete ancient county in China by the World Records Association. On July 13, 2015, Pingyao ancient city became a national 5A tourist attraction.

On November 19, 2017, it won the annual tourism destination reputation award.

The first batch of national primary and secondary school students' research and practice education bases.

According to the World Heritage Center, the ancient city of Pingyao is an outstanding example of ancient Chinese cities in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Pingyao has preserved all its features. Moreover, in the development of Chinese history, it shows an extraordinary complete picture of the development of culture, society, economy and religion.

World Cultural Heritage

Heritage Name: Pingyao ancient city

Ancient City ofPing Yao

Selected time: 1997

Selection criteria: Cultural Heritage (II) (III) (IV)

Location: n37 12 05.004e112 09 15.984

Estate number: 812

Heritage Description:

Pingyao ancient city, located in Pingyao County, Central Shanxi Province, was built in the xuanwang period of the Western Zhou Dynasty (827-782 BC) and expanded in the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1370 AD). It has a history of more than 2700 years. So far, it still retains the basic features of the county town in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), which can be called the most complete ancient city in the Han nationality region of China. It was listed in the world heritage list as a cultural heritage in December 1997.

Pingyao, formerly known as "ancient pottery", has been the seat of county administration since the Qin government implemented the "county system" in 221 BC. In the early years of Ming Dynasty, the city wall was built to defend against foreign invasion. In the third year of Hongwu (A.D. 1370), the old wall was rebuilt and expanded, and was completely covered with bricks. Since then, Jingtai, Zhengde, Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli have carried out ten times of repair and repair, updating the city tower and adding enemy platforms. In the 43rd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1703 A.D.), the emperor built four big city buildings to make the city more spectacular. The total perimeter of Pingyao City Wall is 6163 meters, and the height of the wall is about 12 meters, which divides Pingyao County with an area of about 2.25 square kilometers into two worlds with different styles. The streets, pavements and city buildings within the city wall retain the Ming and Qing shapes, while those outside the city wall are called new towns. There are six gates, four turrets and 72 enemy towers in Pingyao City wall. The south gate wall collapsed in 2004, and most of the others are still intact. It is one of the existing large-scale, early historical and well preserved ancient city walls in China. It is also the core part of Pingyao ancient city, a World Heritage site. In addition, Zhenguo temple, Shuanglin temple and Pingyao Confucian temple are also included in the scope of world heritage protection.

Pingyao has the most complete ancient county structure preserved in China. The traffic system of Pingyao ancient city is composed of four streets, eight streets and 72 lanes. The whole city is very neat, the streets are crisscross, and the streets and alleys are well arranged. The city building is located in the center of the city, and the Ming and Qing streets are located on the North-South central axis. The ancient city building is divided into two parts: Town God's Temple occupies the left, the County Hall occupies the right, the Confucious'Temple occupies the left, and the Guan Yu Temple occupies the right. Taoist Qingxu temple is on the left and Buddhist temple is on the right. Pingyao is also known as "turtle city". The south gate is the head and the north gate is the tail. The four East and West gates are four legs. The four main streets, eight small streets and seventy-two winding lanes in the city are like patterns on the turtle back, forming a huge eight trigrams. It reflects the plain nature of Pingyao people's suffering and longing for peace. People hope that under the protection of the city wall, Pingyao is a paradise far away from war.

World Heritage Committee evaluation:

Pingyao ancient city, built in the 14th century, is an outstanding example of a well preserved Han nationality city. Its urban layout reflects the development of China's architectural style and urban planning over the past five centuries. In particular, the buildings related to the banking industry here are particularly magnificent, because Pingyao was the center of China's financial industry from the 19th century to the early 20th century.

Historical evolution

Pingyao ancient city was built during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou from 827 BC to 782 BC. It was built for the garrison of general Yin Jifu of Western Zhou Dynasty.

In the spring and Autumn period, it belonged to Jin State, and in the Warring States period, it belonged to Zhao state. Pingtao county was established in the Qin Dynasty, and Zhongdu County in the Han Dynasty. It was renamed Pingyao County in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the city walls were built to defend against foreign invasion.

In the third year of Hongwu (1370 A.D.), the old walls were rebuilt and expanded, and all the bricks were covered. Since then, Jingtai, Zhengde, Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli have carried out ten times of repair and repair, updating the city tower and adding enemy platforms.

In the 43rd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1703 A.D.), the emperor built four big city buildings to make the city more spectacular. The total perimeter of Pingyao City Wall is 6163 meters, and the height of the wall is about 12 meters. Pingyao County, with an area of about 2.25 square kilometers, is separated into two different styles of the world.

On December 3, 1997, the 21st session of the World Heritage Committee held by UNESCO in Naples, Italy, decided to include the ancient city of Pingyao as a whole in the world heritage list. It is a physical specimen for the study of China's political, economic, cultural, artistic and religious development.

geographical environment

geographical position

Pingyao County, Jinzhong City (112.19 ° e, 37.21 ° n) is located in the middle of Shanxi Province, the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the southwest of Taiyuan Basin in the east of the Loess Plateau. The county is 616km away from Beijing, 90km away from Taiyuan, 543km away from Xi'an, 758km away from Tianjin port and 2390km away from Guangzhou coast. Pingyao County covers a total area of 1260 square kilometers.

Climatic characteristics

Pingyao ancient city has a temperate monsoon climate with four distinct seasons and abundant light. It is hot and rainy in summer and cold and dry in winter. In a year, July is the hottest and January is the coldest. There is a great difference in precipitation between years, and the distribution is uneven, mainly in June, July, August and September.

Main attractions

architectural composition

Since the reconstruction of Pingyao ancient city in the third year of Hongwu (1370 A.D.), the original pattern has been basically maintained. The key houses in Pingyao City were built between 1840 and 1911. The layout of residential buildings is rigorous, the axis is clear, the left and right are symmetrical, the primary and secondary are clear, the outline is undulating, the appearance is closed, and the courtyard is deep. The exquisite wood carving, brick carving and stone carving, together with the paper-cut window pattern with strong local flavor, are vivid and vivid, which embodies the historical and cultural characteristics of the Han nationality around the 14th to 19th century. It has important reference value for the study of the social form, economic structure, military defense, religious belief, traditional thought, and ethical and moral forms of human living in this period, and it is an important reference for the study of the Han nationality The most complete ancient inhabitant community is preserved in ethnic areas.

History and culture

Folk activities

Dry boat

The boat is made of bamboo, wood and colored silk. It is surrounded by silk and covered with wood and silk. During the performance, accompanied by drum music, one person takes a boat to play the role of a woman. She uses ribbon to tie the boat on her shoulders and sits in the "boat" with false feet, walking like a boat. The other acted as a boatman and rowed ahead with an oar.

Stilts

The legs are made of two wooden sticks, usually 6 feet up and down, and the height is up to 1 Zhang 2 feet. The upper end of the stick is horizontally equipped with a pedal. During the performance, the actor's lower leg is tied to the upper end of the stick, and the foot steps on the board to perform according to various dance steps. Skilled, can jump bench, table and other obstacles, or fall eight fork, "Golden Rooster independence", under the soft waist. The traditional contents include biography of the White Snake, qingdingzhu, fox injustice and Tang Monk's Sutra. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, it also joined the reflection of real life

Chinese PinYin : Ping Yao Gu Cheng