View of a Garden in Pingyao Ancient City 平遥古城
One of the more prominent structures along Yamen Street was a tower which soars above the street. I was thinking that the tower might be a great place to view the ancient city. I found out later that you need entrance fee into the Pingyao Ancient Government Office to have access to the tower, fair enough. The tower was no more then three storeys high but it was still high enough to see more of the city. Because of the rain, there wasn’t much competition climbing the tower. It is just as well as it should not be able to take a lot of punishment from droves of tourists.
Close Up Look at a Roof in Pingyao 平遥
Disappointingly, the views of the city were just a little more than views of the nearest building’s roof. I was hoping it would be higher and I can see a sea of black roofs. It is amazing how homogenous the town became probably as a result of each trying to imitate each other ending up with this kind of town. This was not surprising as buildings in Chinese ancient towns tend to look alike. Fenghuang, Zhouzhuang, Hongcun and Xidi all have buildings which look similar to each other depending on the prevailing culture at that time. There is a taller tower here but I wonder if you can climb it.
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