Tourist sky train offers tourists fresh view of Pingyao

An artist's impression of the elevated monorail train for sightseeing in Pingyao county [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

Pingyao county in North China's Shanxi province is constructing an elevated sightseeing rail route -- a sky train -- which will open to the public in 2021, according to a news report in the Shanxi Daily newspaper on Sept 7.

The sightseeing light railway has adopted panoramic tourist trains and a new straddle monorail system, with the entire train track erected in the air.

This occupies only a small area, offers a wonderful view and has little impact on road traffic.

The tourist trains have exterior designs with two themes -- the Ancient City of Pingyao and Shuanglin Temple.

The former features a combination of classical red, brick gray and black hues inspired by the colors of buildings in the Ancient City of Pingyao. 

The exterior design color of the latter is mainly gold, inspired by the architectural tones of Shuanglin Temple, an ancient Buddhist temple famous for its numerous time-honored colored sculptures. 

One station is set up every 2 kilometers along the elevated, light rail line to coordinate with the surrounding low-volume traffic and form a small-footprint public transport network. This eases the traffic pressure without unduly occupying road traffic resources and heavily impacting on the Ancient City of Pingyao's topography. 

Once put into operation, it will be the first monorail sightseeing train in Shanxi and among the first of its kind in counties across the country. 

Tourists will be able to tour the Ancient City of Pingyao in a novel way and view scenery from different visual angles from above.