Houses and Courtyards in Pingyao 

As dawn breaks and the morning sun bathes Pingyao's gray city walls in warm tones, you find yourself flung back in time, as your eyes behold a Ming dynasty fortress in all its imposing glory. Watchtowers, cast iron cannons, intimidating wooden gates and sturdy walls render an impenetrable feel. And then the city wakes up. Narrow alleys that coil around time-honored courtyard homes fill up with its 480,000 denizens. Shops open their doors to reveal modern cashier equipment perched on antique tabletops. Bustling about are bicycles, rickshaws and scooters. Here in Pingyao, modernity lives with centuries old relics.

The old walled city is an architectural treasure trove. Civic buildings, private homes and streets are well preserved in Ming and Qing styles. Few buildings rise above two stories. Several are adorned with splendid eave roofs, intricately latticed windows, hand-painted glass lanterns and ornate wood.

Pingyao Ancient City has four main streets, 8 roads and 72 lanes and alleys. The layout of the streets and lanes are like the eight diagrams on a mythological Chinese tortoise shell.

The干-shaped main streets are Dong Da Jie, Xi Da Jie, Nan Da Jie (also called Ming-Qing Street), Chenghuangmiao Jie and Yamen Jie. The most important buildings and elegant residences lined these streets, with many of them remaining today, along with numerous smaller buildings.

Some of the courtyards, gates and narrow streets have deep ruts worn in the siltstone paving slabs and bricks, bearing witness to the busy traffic of olden days, when carts of silver and carriages daily arrived from and left for distant places across China. Many languages and dialects were heard on the streets of Pingyao and new customs were brought by travelers. Traveling was a risky business, but was the economic lifeline of China

The courtyard residences in Pingyao are elegantly designed with local features. Standing for a long history, the buildings are still perfectly preserved. There are two types of residences – commercial and civilian, which are all well known for their typical representation of China's traditional residences. One example of these courtyards is Wangs Compound House. Wang's family was originated from Shanxi Province, and after earning some money from their business and farm, the family took three generations to build its house, and now is called as Wangs' Compound House, which is at least two centuries old.

There are altogether 3797 traditional residential "quadrangles", courtyards enclosed by buildings on all four sides, among which 400 courtyards are still well-preserved. Most of these courtyards have been left over since Ming and Qing Dynasties; some are the Yuan Dynasty buildings enjoying a history of more than 600 years, which are rarely seen in other parts of China.

Residential constructions in Pingyao vary greatly in style. Some are single-doored courtyards with buildings on all four sides. Some are compounds with two or three courtyards in string, or with a grand passway between two courtyards. Some courtyards have another courtyard coupled, with the main or two main courtyards paralleling with each other. Most of the houses are wood-framed, having the walls built with bricks and the roofs covered with grey tiles. Some houses have brick-arched ceilings, or have another room built over this cave-like house. Usually, the wooden doors, windows, cornices and their supporters have intricate designs and decorations. Stone columns and their bases are also sculptured beautifully. Brick walls opposite to the courtyard front doors always have meaningful sculptures on them. Pediments on the house roofs are built up and covered by tiles with both ends decorated by tiger-faced tiles. The pediments on rich families' house roofs are usually fixed with elegant animal-shaped tiles specially made of baked clay. The residential houses in Pingyao bear all the typical characteristics of the houses in the central part of Shanxi Province.
 
In former capitals Nanjing, Xi'an and Kaifeng, plus the present first city Beijing, remnants of these walls remain. But progress marches on and the ramparts have given way, not only to military attacks and the decay of time but to the incursion of commerce, industry and overpopulation.

Not so Pingyao. Its wall has stood firm since the Ming Dynasty. Escaping the worst of the Cultural Revolution, even today not one skyscraper blocks the view and the sight of cars remains rare. Built with rammed earth covered with bricks, the wall was fortified to reach its present state 600 years ago. It's half a day's stroll around the 6.4km circuit, along which you'll pass 72 watchtowers - a number representing Confucius's 72 highest-flying students.

The reward of walking the wall is the view over the thousand stylised rooftops below you. Many Pingyao residents, explains one homeowner, live in courtyard houses mostly built during the 19th century or earlier. Since the possession of a fine building was the ultimate status symbol at that time, he continues, a family's wealth would be poured into the bricks and mortar.