Ancient City of Ping Yao

The walls of Pingyao, in central Shanxi, were built in 1370, the third year of the Ming Hongwu Emperor. They stand about 12 m high, run for 6,163 m and have six gates, one each on the north and south and two each on the east and west. The layout was likened to a turtle's head, tail and four legs, giving Pingyao the nickname Turtle City. The walls carry 72 watchtowers and more than 3,000 battlements.

Under the Qing, Pingyao became the financial centre of China. Rishengchang, the first and largest of its exchange banks, handled almost half of China's silver trade in the late Qing, before it went bankrupt in 1914 after the Xinhai Revolution. About 4,000 shops and houses still stand inside the walls, along streets laid out in the Ming and Qing periods.

The site also includes two temples outside the city. Shuanglin Temple holds more than 2,000 painted sculptures of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Wanfo Hall of Zhenguo Temple, from the Five Dynasties period, is one of the oldest timber buildings in China. Pingyao was named a national historical and cultural city in 1986 and inscribed in 1997. Part of the southern wall collapsed in 2004.