Pingyao, 90km southward from Taiyuan, is a small town in central Shanxi Province with a history of 2,700 years. It was first built during the reign of King Xuan (827-782 BC) of the Western Zhou Dynasty. 

Pingyao Ancient Town is famous for its ancient city wall, which was built in 1370, with a total length of about six kilometers. The town is protected by a city moat, both three meters deep and wide. Outside the city gate is a drawbridge. 

Within the city, four big streets and eight small streets radiate to join with 72 lanes. The 3,797 original quadrangle residential houses are all of the same black-colored bricks and gray-colored tiles. Out of the total, over 400 of these courtyard houses are still well preserved. 

There are also temples of varying size and old-fashioned stores. The earliest bank in China, Piaohao (a firm for exchange and transfer of money) was born in Pingyao. 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.

Pingyao boasts plenty of cultural relics. Outside the town are the well-preserved Shuanglin Temple, built in 571, Xiaoxu Temple, built in 657, Thousand-Buddha Hall of Zhengguo Temple and Dacheng Hall of the Wenmiao Temple, built in 963, and the Huiji Bridge, built in 1671.

The old town of Pingyao went on the list of world cultural heritage in 1997.