Píngyáo

Pingyao is a walled town on the Shanxi plain, its streets lined with courtyards, temples and merchants' shops. Six gates pierce the brick-faced walls, and the town's traditional layout preserves the form of a Chinese county seat. Its prosperous merchants carried Shanxi trade far beyond their home province, leaving substantial houses and commercial buildings within the city.

In 1370 the early Ming enlarged the old town and rebuilt its defences with brick and stone. Commerce expanded from the middle Ming onward, and under the Qing Pingyao became a centre of finance as well as trade. In 1823 the Rishengchang exchange house opened here, helping merchants transfer funds between distant cities without carrying large quantities of silver. Its rise brought a new kind of business to the town's crowded streets.