Ask a QuestionPingyao, located at the middle of Shanxi province, is a well-preserved ancient town of China's Ming and Qing Dynasties. With over 2,700 year's profound history, Pingyao Ancient Town has been a famous national historical and cultural town. It's included in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1997. Wandering around the town, you will be surrounded by all ancient buildings and taken back to ancient Ming Qing times.
If you are interested in photographing China's ancient towns, Pingyao is absolutely a good option. Since 2001, Pingyao has successfully held the famous Pingyao International Photography Festival, photographers from all over the world come to Pingyao to attend this event and display their photography works. The combination of modern photography works and the historical ancient town is a visual feast for all audiences. You'd better know the best photography places in Pingyao Ancient Town, so that you can take some stunning pictures.
Pingyao Ancient Town
The Pingyao Ancient City Wall is a good place to shoot the panorama view of the entire architecture structures of the ancient town. It is also an ideal place to shoot the sunset. As the sun goes down, the whole city wall is bathing in the afterglow of the sunset and seems like being coated with gold. You won't regret a photography in Pingyao Ancient Town.
The ancient city wall was initially built in Western Zhou Dynasty, for defense purpose. It is now one of the best-preserved ancient city walls in China. Two city gates were built on each of the western and eastern walls; one city gate was built on each of the southern and northern city gate. 72 watchtowers were built circling around the walls and 3,000 crenels were built outside of the wall. It is said that the 72 watchtowers and 3,000 crenels symbolize 72 disciples and 3,000 students of Confucius.
Wang Family Compound is the typical representative of ancient residential architecture in northern China. It was the mansion of one of the four richest families in Qing Dynasty in Shanxi province with over 300 years' history. Wang Family Compound covers an area of 25 hectares (62 acres), which includes five alleys, six forts and one street. The layout of the yards shows the strict hierarchical system of ancient China. Rooms and yards with different scales were offered to people in accordance with their social status. Walking around the courtyard, you could see the ornate wooden, stone and bricks'sculptures which witnessed the decline of the rich Wang family.
Wang Family Compound
Qiao Family Compound was the mansion of a famous financial capitalist in the Qing Dynasty and was firstly built in 1756, later renovated by his posterities. The Qiao Family Compound is a magnificent architectural group with exquisite design and fine craftsmanship for stone carving, wooden carving and brick carving. It embodies the unique style of northern Chinese residential architecture in the Qing Dynasty with high scientific research and historical value. It is an unparalleled treasure house of art, known as "a pearl in the architecture of northern dwellings".
Qiao Family Compound
Rishengchang Bank, known as the first bank of China, was established in 1823 during early Qing Dynasty. Now it becomes a museum that displays the way how ancient Chinese people handling banking business including remittances, money exchange, deposits, and loans. At that time, the only calculating technology was the abacus, no calculators or other tools.
Best Photography Places in Pingyao Ancient Town provide you great chances to take stunning pictures of the ancient buildings. If you have no idea how to plan your Pingyao tour, please feel free to contact us. Popular Pingyao tours below may be helpful for you.
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