TouchBeijing.com

Built in 1370 at the beginning of Ming dynasty, the city of Pingyao today still remains its original layout of the Ming and Qing dynasties. More than 300 sites in or near the city have ancient ruins. Preserved Ming- and Qing-style residences number close to 4,000. The streets and storefronts still largely retain their historical appearance.

It became a World Heritage Site in 1997, included also the outlying Zhenguo Temple (13km northeast) and Shuanglin Temple (6km west).

Pingyao was designed and built according to Chinese geomancy theory of Baigua and Fengshui.The city was north-south orientated, but about 15 degrees off to the east, it has six gates, the east and west side have two gates each, but the north and south have one gate each, locals say it it similar to the shape of a turtle (head, tail, and four legs), another name for it is “Turtle City”. A tower was built about 8 km north east of the city to tie up this giant turtle from moving,

The walls measure about 12 meters high, with a perimeter of 6,000 meters. A 4-meter wide, 4-meter deep moat can be found just outside the walls. Aside from the four structured towers at the four corners, there are also 72 watchtowers and more than 3,000 battlements. In 2004, part of the southern walls collapsed but were reconstructed. However, the rest of the city walls are still largely intact and are considered among the best-preserved ancient city walls on this scale. This makes the city walls the centerpiece of the Heritage Site.

Great Wall at Niangziguan 娘子关 section, here regarded as the intersection bewteen Hebei and Shanxi province.