Língshí

Lingshi lies in the hills beside the Fen River in central Shanxi. At nearby Jingsheng, generations of the Wang family built a remarkable group of courtyard houses on the slope above the village. The family settled here in the Yuan period, farming before gaining wealth and influence through commerce and office. Their ancestral hall was founded in the late Ming and enlarged in the Qing. Between 1796 and 1811 they built the Gaojiaya complex, with dozens of courtyards and hundreds of rooms.