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Pingyao Historic City and Qiao Family Courtyard Zhang
once controlled over 50 percent of the their original shapes, with mainly 17th‒19th
country’s financial institutions in the Ming century buildings on both sides, maintaining
and Qing dynasties, its status was comparable their traditional layouts and styles. The
to the “Wall Street” in the USA today. The mostly 2-storey shops have colorful paintings
West Avenue starts from the west to under the eaves and vibrant carvings on the
Xiaximen (fengyimen), intersecting at the beams. The vernacular houses all have
north end of South Avenue in the east, courtyards with grey bricks and tiles, with
forming a straight through access with the clear axes and symmetrical plans. Pingyao
East Avenue, known as the “First Financial Historic City has completely preserved its
Street of the Qing Dynasty.” The East Avenue Ming and Qing appearance for three reasons.
begins from the east at the Lower East Gate Firstly, Pingyao had experienced less wars
(qinhanmen), intersecting at the north end of when Shanxi was ruled by Yan Xishan (阎锡
the South Avenue in the west, forming a 山, 1883‒1960) from 1911. Japan invaded
straight access through the West Avenue. The China in 1937 and made damages to Pingyao.
North Avenue commences from the North During the Chinese Civil War (1945‒1949),
Gate (gongjimen) in the north, connecting to the Nationalist Army abandoned the city
the middle part of the West Avenue in the before fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, Pingyao
south [4-6] [Figure 5]. was then returned to the people. Secondly,
Pingyao is situated in a dry land that generally
has less groundwater, as such, it has not been
run over by modern industrial development.
Thirdly, for many years, Pingyao local
government had financial difficulties to
renovate the Old City. After the reform and
opening-up in 1978, the State Council
announced in 1986 that Pingyao was a
national historic and cultural city, and it was
listed as a World Heritage Site in 1997,
making Pingyao Historic City a fully
protected status, which has become a huge
resource for tourism development and a pillar
industry for its local economy [1, 4] .
From the “Master Plan of Pingyao
County” (Pingyao Xiancheng Zongti Guihua)
3 compiled and edited by Pingyao County
Government in 1980, to the ongoing revision
of “Regulations on the Protection of Pingyao
Historic City in Shanxi Province” (Shanxi
4
Sheng Pingyao Gucheng Baohu Tiaoli),
Pingyao has always adhered to the practice of
overall protection of its historic features, not
Figure 4. Pingyao Historic City South Avenue with the
City Tower in distance. Most of this has been restored. only to fully realize its cultural values, but
Source: Photo by the author, 2017 also to enable Pingyao to gain continuous
vitality. Pingyao Old City is still alive today,
with everyday life lived in an orderly and
[1]
The nearly 100 historic streets of rhythmic manner .
Pingyao Old City are basically intact and in
3 《平遥县城总体规划》
4 《山西省平遥古城保护条例》
AccScience Publishing 6
