Hi, I'd like to introduce to you a town of ShanXi Province, China-Ancient City Wall of Pingyao. It has been selected to one of the Heritages of World Culture and you can see more and more foreign tourists in the streets. Anyone who is interested in ancient buildings and history of China should be there to see them.
I quote some texts from the internet to give you a general image of Pingyao and in the attachment I' ll give a picture of it.
"Pingyao was built in the West Zhou Dynasty (827-728 B.C) The original walls were of tamped earth Pingyao city was built in the early Northern Wei Dynasty. Over the centuries its walls were rebuilt and lengthened from 9 li plus eighteen paces to over 12 li, (6.4 kilometers). The outside was faced with stones and bricks starting in 1370, and the wall underwent frequent repairs and rebuilding during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
It's ten meters high, 6163 meters around, and three to five meters wide at the top. While the west, north and east walls are straight, the southern one curves, forming a rough square. The northern and southern walls have one gate each, the eastern and western walls, two each. Each gate has a barbican entrance with an inner and an outer door and has a tower above it.
The whole shape of the wall is like a tortoise which is a symbol of eternity. There are 72 watch towers along the outside wall's top, which represent the 72 disciples of Confucous.
10 years of FIF
Forum Supporter
Nostradamus
Most Passionate Member
