Pingyao

A thriving merchant town once upon a time, Pingyao achieved further economic clout by establishing China's first banking system. Then in the 20th century it slipped into poverty, probably due to the colossal social upheaval of China becoming a republic, and shortly afterwards, a peoples republic. Consequently, Pingyao lacked the funds to modernise, and has pretty much by accident become an astoundingly preserved ancient city, and a World Heritage site.


Comparisons to kung-fu movies have been made too often in the short time we've been here. To say that Pingyao feels real is absurd, because it is real. Even though the bulk of the city's' income clearly comes from tourism, it isn't crass and Starbucksified in the way that Shanghai's old town was. There is a small-town feeling here - everybody seems to know everybody else. Of course, like many small towns, it's also a little bit strange.


Former capitals like Nanjing and Xian, or Kyoto and Kamakura in Japan, are sure of their positions as important historical sites. Pingyao however seems, whilst confident, unsure of what to do with its' status as a living relic. Museums and places of interest are rough and tumble affairs, hastily thrown together and roped off. Moreover, the relentless symmetry of the place makes one old building much like another. The really interesting sights are the streets, romantic, Ming China, but of course these are crowded with souvenir stalls, hawking essentially the same things, and packs of tourists rallying around invariably shrill-voiced guides roaring through loudspeakers.


Tonight, we dive back into modernity, on a sleeper train to Beijing, a city we won't be doing justice to. Three days isn't enough time to traverse a place roughly the size of Belgium.