The City Wall in Pingyao

The Pingyao ancient town was first built in Xizhou dynasty, and it has a history of about 2700 years. It is a town that is completely constructed according to the traditional planning ideas and layout pattern of Han nationality people. In 1986, the State Department announced it to be the famous historical and cultural town in China. And in 1997, the Pingyao ancient town was listed to be the World Culture Heritage by UNESCO.

In many historical and cultural sights, the Pingyao City Wall is a must-see. The City Wall in Pingyao was first built in 827 B.C. In the early days of Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the enemies from invading, all the cities in China began to build the City Wall to defend themselves. The City Wall in Pingyao was also built at that time. The ancient Pingyao town had been repaired 26 times. At the beginning period of Qing Dynasty ( in 1703), the emperor patrolled passing Pingyao town, so the people in Pingyao especially built four city gate towers, which made the Pingyao town more spectacular.

The Pingyao City Wall is planned according to the principle of “right crop for right land” and “make it to be the stronghold by using the strategic place”. The east wall, west wall, and the north wall are straight, but the south wall is built wriggled by the river. The perimeter of the City Wall is 6157.7 meters. The City Wall is 6 to 10 meters tall. The top of the City Wall is 3 to 6 meters wide and the bottom of the City Wall is 9 to 12 meters wide. The moat is built outside the City Wall and it is ten feet in width and in depth.

There are 6 city gates in all. Both the east and west city wall have two city gates. Both the south and the north city wall have one city gate. On the east and west City Wall, there built Wengcheng to defend. Wengcheng is a whistle stop outside the city gate. It is often round or square. The Wengcheng in Pingyao is square. When the enemies come, it is good for people to defend from two different directions. Wengcheng has two gates, the outside gate and the inside gate. In normal times, it is used to check the passing travelers. And if someone is suspicious, give an alarm, and the two gates will shut. And the person who is closed is in an inescapable situation. There is an idiom in Chinese “Weng Zhong Zhuo Bie” (Catch a turtle in the pot, which means a sure catch) to describe this situation, so the name of Wengcheng comes from this idiom.

Outside the city gate, the hanging bridges were built. It is said that there are 3000 crenels and 72 watch towers on the City Wall. It means that Confucius has 3000 disciples and 72 oracles.

The Pingyao City Wall has an exquisite structure and intensive design and construction. It shows the wisdom of ancient labor men. The City Wall is an indispensable part in the world heritage of Pingyao ancient town.