Training Grounds for the Bodyguards in Pingyao 平遥
This has got to be the most bizarrely themed musuem I have ever been to. The large “镖” at the entrance says it all. This is a museum for the Armed Escort Agency that operated in Pingyao during the Qing dynasty. Being the financial center that it was, business was brisk. This place shows how the armed escorts industry was back then. It looked surpringly like the other establishments that I have visited. I was kind of expecting a rougher place but it was just as refined as the others. That was until I went to the very back of the museum.
One of the Offices in the Armed Escort Agency in Pingyao 平遥
There was a large yin yang figure on the ground and there were weapons on the side of the grounds. This was a training ground for the bodyguards. The bodyguards were trained, not surprisingly, in Kungfu or Gongfu, yes, just like in the movies. There were weapons which they also trained with to make sure they are able to protect their cargo. These men were surely superbly conditioned people since trips from one city to another will probably take at least several days. Chances for ambushes will rise on longer trips, so it pays for them to be always in tip-top shape.
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