About my hometown—Ping Yao
Today I will do a presentation about my hometown, which is Ping Yao City.
Ping Yao is an extremely famous historic cultural city of China and a world cultural heritage site. It is located in the centre of Shanxi Province. It is 90 kilometers away from the south of Tai Yuan (the main city of Shanxi province) on the Fen River.
Ping Yao ancient City is an outstanding example of Chinese Han nationality during Ming and Qing Dynasties, remaining all features of such periods, Ping Yao ancient city reveals a picture of unexpected cultural, social, economic and religious development in Chinese history, said by UNESCO.
In 1997, Ancient Ping Yao City was formally confirmed” World Culture Heritage” by UNESCO, and was listed in World Heritage List.
Ping Yao is the prototype of an ancient the seat of government, also is the birthplace of Shanxi merchants. There are several places of interest you must go. For example, Ping Yao City Wall, Seat of the country Government, Shuang Lin Temple and Rishengchang (Sunrise Prosperity)…..etc (Here I have to show the picture to my audience, because most of them don’t know those places).
Now I will introduce the birthplace of Shanxi merchants . After this you will know (which is) the first bank in China. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the business man organized commercial groups so that they can engage in Business nationwide. Therefore Shanxi province having some of the most important commercial groups, fortunately Ping Yao as the center at that time period The Xiyucheng (西裕成) dye store in the west street dealt in remittance. In 1823 it became the first draft bank in China, dealing in bank drafts rather than in silver or gold money. Known as Rishengchang (Sunrise Prosperity), it’s the first bank in China. During hundreds of years of the draft banking lasted in China, Ping Yao became the hub (as important as the New York City in American now!) as other local merchants opened similar banks in their cities. Therefore the branch banks were set up in major cities in China and in Asia soon. This led to the great prosperity in Ping Yao, with its subsequent economic, cultural and societal development, Courtyards became more flourishing. Streets, shops and stores were developed and enlarged. So its products, such as lacquer ware and clay sculptures, became well known.
The same as the other places of interest, we have lots of delicious local food. Such as Ping Yao Beef, WanTuzi, Deep fried sweet rice balls, and Steamed oat noodles….etc. You can eat them in every restaurant, even every corner of the street in the City of Ping Yao. We have lots of special products as well. Like Polished Lacquer Ware, Chinese yam….etc. (show the picture to them)
Lastly, as I heard, some of extremely famous visitors have been there in the past 10 years. For example: Former French president, the president of People of Republic of China Hu Jintao, Former Premier Zhu Rongji, and so on. So I welcome all of you to make a way to my hometown. You will see so many historical sights of ancient China over there. I am sure you will feel a big surprise (or love there) after you finish your travelling of Ping Yao.
This is the end of my presentation, for more details please refer to the information below. Thank you for your attention.
Owen
(Reference: how to get there. The nearest airport is Tai Yuan Wu Xu airport station located between Tai Yuan City and Yu Ci City (I lived in the City most of my time). First, you have to take a flight to reach Tai Yuan City(Tai Yuan Wu Xu airport is not a international airport, so you have to take a fight reach Beijing international airport first, then change to a local domestic airline to reach there), after that you need to transfer to train and bus. For your safety, I strongly recommend you to take a train. Because lots of carriage accidents happened on the Highway and Expressway. Other reason is some of the drivers are really crazy! The Tong Pu railway line run north-south through or near Ping Yao, frequent trains run between two cities. It takes you around one and half hours.)
Reference website: http://www.pingyaotrip.com/pyenglish/index.asp;
http://www.pyxyc.com/kzjj0.htm
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