Beautiful Places On Earth

Pingyao is an ancient city located in the center of Shanxi Province, China. The ancient city of Pingyao lies about 715 kilometers from Beijing. The city is renowned for its well preserved ancient city wall, and had been included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, together with Zhenguo Temple and Shuanglin Temple.

The ancient city of Pingyao was built in between B.C. 827 and B.C. 782 under the ruling of Emperor Zhou Xuan. The existing city walls were constructed starting from 1370 by the Hongwu Emperor or more commonly known as Zhu Yuanzhang. The city walls are about 12 meters high, with a perimeter of 6,000 meters. The walls have 6 gates, i.e. one each in the north and south and 2 each in the east and west sides. This pattern resembles the head, tail and 4 legs of a turtle, thus earning Pingyao the nickname of “Turtle City”. Along the walls, there are 4 towers at the 4 corners and also 72 watchtowers in between. Besides its ancient city walls, Pingyao is also renowned for its Ming and Qing style architectures. There are more than 300 sites in or near Pingyao that have ancient ruins.

Charming Pingyao, China

Still relatively unknown to the tourists, Pingyao is one of the best preserved ancient cities in China. Believe it or not, bicycles are main mode of transport in Pingyao and the use of cars is prohibited within the city!

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone fortifications built in China from the 5th century BC to the 16th century. The wall was built throughout several dynasties to protect the empire from Xiongnu attacks. The Great Wall of China stretches over approximately 6,700 kilometers, passing through Gansu Province, Ninxia Hui Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province, Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia, Hebei Province and Liaoning Province. It was once claimed the Great Wall is visible to human eyes from the moon. But it is proved to be just a myth as no astronaut has ever claimed they had seen the Great Wall of China from the moon.

Three main passes of the Great Wall of China are Juyongguan, Jiayuguan and Shanhaiguan. Juyongguan is located at the north end of the Great Wall, which is inside the Changping County of Beijing City. Jiayuguan is the west end of the Great Wall located in the Gansu Province while Shanhaiguan is the east end of the Great Wall located in the city of Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province.

Today, most portions of the Great Wall of China have been destroyed due to sandstorm erosion and vandalism. Only some portions of the Great Wall have been preserved and reconstructed for tourism purpose. Among all, the Badaling section which is located 80 kilometers northwest of Beijing City is the most well preserved section of the Great Wall and also the most visited. Other sections which are within the Beijing municipality are the Mutianyu section which is 70 kilometers northeast of Beijing, the Jinshanling section which is 120 kilometers northeast of Beijing and the Simatai section which is also 120 kilometers northeast of Beijing. The following clip shows a visit to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.

Visiting the Great Wall at Mutianyu

The Great Wall of China is the world’s longest time consuming project. The Wall also incorporates ancient Chinese architecture skills. In 1987, the Great Wall of China was enlisted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Besides, the Great Wall of China is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It is definitely one of the must visit places in your lifetime! You can plan your Great Wall trip with us.