china 4 - pingyao (6/15)

as i said in my last post, pingyao is great. one of the coolest things is that for ~150rmb (which is actually very expensive. i have no idea how local people can afford to travel in china...) you get access to like 18 different mini museums and to the city walls. to climb the bell tower at city center it's just another 5rmb. probably the best 5rmb i've ever spent, honestly.

"surrounded by one of china's few intact ming city walls, pingyao's streets are lined with a wealth of traditional chinese buildings, including couryard houses, temples, and more than 3,000 historic shops."

"pingyao's treasure trove of ming and qing architecture is a legacy of the town's affluent days as a banking center, which ceased when the qing dynasty defaulted on loans and abdicated, leaving the banks empty. the transferal of the country's finances to shnaghai and hong kong turned the city into a backwater, saving it from development and, ultimately, preserving its character."

"the 39-ft high, crenelated enclosure dating from 1370 is said to resemble the outline of a tortoise. its head lies at the south fate, its four feet at the east and west gates, and its tail at the north gate."

 

the walls are "more than 6km in circumference... punctuated by 72 watchtowers (lonely planet)" "every 164 ft (50m)."

 

i walked about half of the wall. not every gate has access, and of course i'd already visited (at some point or another) all of them by the time by the time i decided to get up there. did the math later and i was out for about 9 hours that day. cut a couple hours for breaks (no meals), and i probably walked 7 hours? multiply that by three (3.1 being the average miles per hour walking) and you get 21. i walked like 20 miles on saturday alone. sheesh. for a person who pretty much hates exercise and doesn't do it when i can get away with it, i sure can bang it out while on vacation!

(quotations from dk eyewitness travel guide except where noted)