Pingyao is a famous historic cultural city of China and a world cultural heritage site. Located in the center of Shanxi Province, it's 90 kilometers south of Taiyuan on the Fen River. The Dayun highway, the new Dayun Expressway and the Tongpu railway run north-south through or near it. Frequent trains and buses run between the two cities, taking about 1 and 1/2 hours. Pingyao Ancient Town, is the best-preserved among the four ancient towns in China. It is the assembly place of folk houses in north China where rows upon rows of buildings in the Ming and Qing Dynasties stand in well-preserved conditions. The earliest bank in China, Piaohao (a firm for exchange and transfer of money) was born here. During the fairly long period of late 19th century and early 20th century, merchants from Shanxi Province nearly dominated all finance in China. While playing an outstanding role in business circles, they painstakingly built the eye-catching courtyards one after another, thus came into being the typical house culture of Shanxi. On December 3, 1997, the town, with over 2700-year history-Pingyao was formally added to the list of World Heritage by the UN. Pingyao is also called the Turtle City--long-living and as solid as a rock. The outer wall stands with 3000 crenels and 72 ramparts. The number 3,000 stands for Confucian's 3000 followers while the number 72 stands for the 72 worthies. Pingyao was called the Ancient Tao before the Dynasties of Qin and Han. According to the Records of Pingyao County, it had been the manor of Yao, who was the king of a union tribe in ancient China. In the Period of Spring & Autumn, the Ancient Tao belonged to the Jin Kingdom, and to the Zhao Kingdom later. The county system replaced the manor system when the First Emperor of Qin unified the whole country. The Ancient Tao was then set as the county location and changed name to Ping Tao. In early Northern Wei Dynasty, Ping Tao was renamed as Pingyao to avoid the pronunciation Tao, because the temporal Emperor was named as Tuoba Tao. According to ancient rules, name of emperor, high official, head of a family, or elder of a clan was regarded as taboo by his subjects or juniors.

According to historical records, in the West Zhou Dynasty, the King of Xuan dispatched his general Yin Jie Fu fighting against invaders of other nationalities. General Yin stationed his troops in the Ancient Tao and constructed defense wall there. In early Ming Dynasty, since the year of 1370 AD, the government had enlarged and reconstructed the city wall to present size for military purpose. In the late 500 years of Ming & Qing Dynasty, the wall had been reconstructed and repaired for 26 times or so, with its basic style and size remained without many changes. From then on, the magnificent wall has been standing there for 600 years through the war flames and natural corrosions. Glints and flash of swords and spears, and flames and explosions of war all have become historical things. Military function of the strong and high city wall has died out. Nowadays the old wall presents to the later generations the changing dynasties and events that occurred in the past thousand years. Major scenic spots include Ancient City Walls and Gates of Pingyao, Wang's Grand Courtyard, Pingyao County Office, Streets and Markets of Pingyao and Rishengchang Draft Bank.