The South Gate of Pingyao Ancient Town 平遥古城
Pingyao is a fascinating city to explore. If you are up to it you can probably spend a few days exploring every alley of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are real villagers living here and it is not just the ones which operate the hostels and restaurants. If you look hard enough you can see the ordinary folk going about their daily lives. These places tend to be far from the main tourist circuit, but they are really there. There will be a lot of people who come here to work usually from the surrounding town. But the people who live here probably supply the restaurants and hostels with stuff.
Scale Model of Pingyao Ancient Town 平遥古城
Despite the influx of Chinese tourists here in Pingyao, there was still much space to accomodate them. If you visit in late October, the weather will still be pleasant and the tourists wouldn’t be as much. I will leave the history appreciation to the Chinese tourists while I just absorb the beauty of Pingyao’s homogenous architecture. It is already mid afternoon and it seems that the tour groups have already moved on to a different place. Who knew you could actually have this place to yourself.
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