Exploring ancient city walls doesn't sound very exciting, but when you can do it on a bike atop the wall it improves the experience 10 fold. While cruising the wall you get an interesting view of a modern China city that is growing at an unbelievable rate. We easily saw 30 skyscrapers being built while on our 1 hour ride. The truly shocking thing is that this is what you see in every city in China. Growth at a rate you can't even imagine.
Pingyao's history dates back 2,700 years, and is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the known world. It's renowned for it's well preserved ancient city wall which is shaped like a turtle. Giving the city it's nickname "Turtle City". The wall, which was built in 1370, measures 12 meters high with a preimeter of 6,000 meters. There is also a 4 meter wide mote just outside the walls. With over 70 watchtowers and more than 3,000 battlements you can understand why it became the banking center of China.
Cassie and I spent two nights and three full days exploing this cities temples, shops, and restraunts within its walls. I've left all the photos of what's inside these walls to a photo set. So like us, if you want to see the what was inside this walled city you will have to enter these ancient walls. Pingyao photo set.
