On Day 2 of our China trip, we would visit Pingyao Ancient City, a well-preserved Chinese city with over 2,700 years of history. As one of China’s four-most preserved ancient cities, this UNESCO site was once a bustling financial centre, brimming with cultural and historical significance.
Stroll through its timeless streets, lined with ancient shops, banks, temples, and residences, and feel as if you’ve stepped straight into a Chinese historical drama. At night, you can also catch a light show projected against Pingyao’s Ancient City Wall.
One of the things many ladies would do here is to dress in Hanfu (汉服) – which means traditional Chinese costume. In Pingyao which used to be a prosperous financial centre, the highlight is “merchant” style – either merchant missy or merchant wife.
I’ll do that too which you’ll see in a bit.
For a better story flow, do read Day 1’s post on what we did in Beijing. Done that? Let’s kickstart Day 2 in China.
>> RELATED: Day 1 in Beijing (Temple of Heaven & Hopson One Mall)
Beijing to Pingyao Ancient City by Train
Since we would only spend one night in Pingyao Ancient City, we made sure our train ride from Beijing was an early one – at around 8am. The journey would take about 4 hours from Beijing to Pingyao.
How to get to Pingyao Ancient City from Beijing?
From our hotel in Beijing located near Zhushikou (珠市口) subway station, we travelled eastward via subway and reached Beijing Fengtai Train Station (北京丰台站) within 40 minutes (¥4).
TRAIN vs SUBWAY: For clarity, I will use train to describe high-speed train rides in China that often cross cities, and subway to describe metro/MRT that often run only within the city.
We grabbed a quick Mcdonald’s breakfast at the train station. A “Double Scramble Egg & Chicken” burger, paired with mini Chinese sausages and an orange-flavoured latte (¥50). That’s quite a unique China-style combination.
TIP: I’ve earlier shared tips in taking high-speed train rides in China. If you’ve missed it, check out 12 China Travel Tips for ease of travelling across China cities.
4-hour Train Ride to Pingyao Ancient City
(8am)
For train rides in China, you can choose different types of seat, such as Business, First Class and Second Class (in descending order of price).
Since this train ride would be quite long, we opted for a more spacious “First Class” seat (¥362 vs Second Class’s ¥230 vs Business Class’s ¥740). Some free snacks and beverage were thrown into this more expensive ticket, and the long ride breezed by quickly as we enjoyed a good nap on the train.
How to buy train ticket? You can buy directly from 12306.cn (website or mobile app) or do so through Trip.com. Remember to book in advance, especially if travelling during holiday – fastest finger wins! :)
Arriving at Pingyao City from Beijing
(12pm)
Upon reaching Pingyao train station (平遥古城站) by noon, we hailed a ride using Alipay app and reached our hotel in Pingyao within half an hour.
Checking into Hotel at Pingyao
With just one day to spare in Pingyao, we were quite unfortunate to experience a slow hotel check in that stretched over 45 minutes, despite being only third in line. For some reason, the staff were eager to serve any queue-jumpers alongside existing customers.
As a result, there was a built-up of 5 to 6 groups of customers, with no check-ins being completed during the wait. It was an unusual hotel management approach – definitely not the typical “first come, first served” system you would expect.
Survival Technique in China
We got tired of waiting, and had to pick up local techniques too. Hence, we approached the counter before the customers ahead of us (queue cutters) had completed their transactions. And indeed, the hotel staff started serving us too, together with the rest. LOL!
I guess that’s one good survival technique in this country – be competitive to get things done. Luckily, this hotel experience is not representative of our overall hotel experience in China – we’d stayed in 8 hotels during this trip. :)
Walking to Pingyao Ancient City (UNESCO)
Looking at the map, we’d thought the walk to Pingyao Ancient City would be manageable especially for avid walkers like us. It wasn’t.
Getting to the center of activity took close to 25 minutes by foot. And it was not a comfortable walk as we had to make sure we don’t get hit by tourists shuttles and ride-hailing motorbikes zipping by from different directions.
In hind sight, it might have been worth paying ¥10 per pax for the touristy shuttle instead.
Luckily, as we walked further into the ancient city, the experience improved as tourist transport were restricted from accessing the inner streets.
Local Dishes: What’s for Lunch at Pingyao Ancient City?
We’d marked out a popular restaurant – “Hong Wu Ji” (洪武记饭店) – in Pingyao Ancient City. And indeed, the queue was long.
After a 30-minute wait, we were led into the restaurant set within a big ancient building that resembled the former residence of a wealthy merchant.
Local dishes we ordered included “Lao Lao”, which is like Ban Mian stick together like a flower, and topped with tomato sauce.
Another dish we ordered was “Knife-Shaved” (刀削面) noodle which was not bad, but the beef portion was too little. The third dish was fried egg, which was just average in taste.
We later learnt that most dishes in Shanxi province are carbo-laden – not exactly our favourite source of nutrients, but we would manage. :)
All in all, the food at “Hong Wu Ji” (洪武记饭店) was alright. However, we probably wouldn’t have queued for it.
11 Attractions in Pingyao Ancient City We’ve Visited
Done with lunch at 3.30pm, we had only two hours to visit the attractions before many would close for the day. You can pre-purchase attraction bundle ticket here like we did to gain access to more than 22 attractions in Pingyao Ancient City.
Here are the places we chose to visit:
1. The Chinese Armed Escort (中国镖局博物馆)
I’d initially thought I was in a postal museum. But as I walked through The Chinese Armed Escort (see location), I realised this was a place that used to deliver things – and some of these things were expensive, such as gold and silver ingots.
Hence, the “postmen” were well-trained in martial arts as they needed to protect things along remote mountainous roads and to fight against potential robbers.
All attraction info were depicted in Chinese. Hence, you may need a guide to better appreciate the attraction.
Even for us who can read Chinese, it wasn’t easy since Chinese isn’t our official working language in Singapore. Also, I believe traditional Chinese was used, which we weren’t trained in (in Singapore).
2. “Xie Tong Qing” Money Vault (协同庆钱庄博物馆)
“Xie Tong Qing” Money Vault was one of the most interesting places to visit in Pingyao (see location).
You can visit the underground money vault. Or go through a real experience withdrawing “ingots” via a bank draft.
Some interesting Douyin videos here to give you a better idea of what you would experience.
3. Rishengchang Former Bank (日升昌)
Rishengchang Bank, founded in 1823, was the first modern bank in China (see location). This is one of the most popular sights to visit. But since we’d covered a rather similar attraction (see #2), we thought it was getting a little repetitive.
You probably should switch the order and visit #3, then #2. :)
4. Ming Qing Street (明清街)
Ming Qing street, also known as South Street was China’s “Wall Street” during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1367 – 1912) as it controlled more than half the financial institutions in China (see location).
Today, you can find many shops and eateries lined along the 750m-long street.
Through this South-axis Ming Qing street, you can connect to West Street and East Street in the North. As I walked along the West Street, I was particularly captivated by the soft reflection of the setting sun on the paved road.
5. Ancient Government Office (平遥县衙博物馆)
This “Yamen” was one of the key places I’d wanted to visit, having watched in Chinese historical drama on how people in ancient times were trialed or tortured.
There’s also a prison within this compound. However, we were there too late – there was not a single soul and it was getting dark. Given the eeriness, we thought we would visit it the next morning. :)
6. Ancient Residences (Missed)
In Pingyao, you can also visit ancient residences such as Ma Family’s Residence (马家大院), the ancient home of a rich merchant.
This family was so rich they even had an underground money vault to place their gold and silver ingots. Obviously, we had run out of time and didn’t get to visit this.
7. Cafe break in Pingyao Ancient City
Tired of walking, we found several cafe options along the street such as Luckin, Mixue and Chagee. If you need coffee, head over to KFC.
We opted to rest at Chagee and enjoyed a cup of bubble milk tea.
8. Hanfu (汉服) Costume Rental & Photography
As shared earlier, many ladies would don a merchant style Hanfu costume. I enquired a few shops – the price was about ¥200 (including photography) or cheaper if you just need the costume and makeup service.
I contemplated hard if I should do it today, but the sun was setting. It’s ok, I would be back tomorrow to enjoy my Hanfu experience. :) Stay tuned to Day 3’s post to see some of my “studio” photos.
9. Ancient City Wall (城墙)
One popular activity is walking along Pingyao’s Ancient City Wall. From this elevated vantage point, you can enjoy a good view of the city below.
10. Pingyao Light Show (South Gate)
There’s a light show at 9pm. near the Ancient City Wall (south gate). Since it was still early (7 pm), we’d considered skipping it and heading back to our hotel outside Pingyao Ancient City.
But given that we would probably never be here again, we decided to “Just do it!”. We initially planned to kill our time at Luckin Cafe, but the staff were kind to inform us that the City Gate would close at 8 pm to prep for the show.
This meant that we would need to exit the gate by 8pm, and literally do nothing till the show began at 9pm. That was a long wait out in the open.
The light show at Pingyao Ancient City was ok, though we found it a little too modernised for our taste. Personally, I preferred the light show at Teochew City (Guangji Bridge – 广济桥), which was more captivating.
11. Attractions outside of Pingyao City Walls
Of course there are more places you can visit outside of Pingyao Ancient City, such as Shuanglin Temple. This temple – a UNESCO Heritage site – houses more than 2,000 clay sculptures of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties (960–1912).
Another UNESCO site in Pingyao is Zhengguo Temple, located about 13km from Pingyao Ancient City. You can find more info here.
Conclusion: Attractions in Pingyao Ancient City
These were just a handful of the attractions we managed to cover using the bundle admission tickets.
If you like to make the best use of your admission ticket, do consider spending another day at Pingyao Ancient City.
PINGYAO TICKET: You can buy Pingyao Attractions Ticket here.
Dinner in Pingyao was memorable, but in a wrong way
(9.30pm)
Done with our first day in Pingyao, the man was getting hungry. He randomly chose a restaurant located near our hotel – that turned out to be one of the most memorable meals we’ve had in this trip.
But not in a good way!
He ordered some veggie and a fish (Koi fish). The veggie was ok, but Koi fish had way too much bones.
The most memorable part of our experience was the staff member sitting near the door, just a couple of meters away from us, who kept spitting.
Before each spit, he’d make a loud sound to gather the phlegm at the back of his throat – if you know what I mean. He did this every few minutes, and it severely affected our appetite during the meal. To add, he was also smoking. So our dining experience became super memorable, all thanks to him. LOL!
We are done with Day 2 in China. Tomorrow, we would spend the first half of day back in Pingyao Ancient City for the Hanfu experience. And then venture to the next city. Check out Day 3’s travelogue!
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- Day 1: From Singapore to Beijing’s Temple of Heaven
- Day 2: Step back in time at Pingyao Ancient City (UNESCO Gem)!
- Day 3: Hanfu Experience in Pingyao & Traveling to Linfen City
