Ancient Pingyao crackles with new vitality

The Ancient City of Pingyao presents a fascinating insight into the architectural style of cities built by the Han people in China from the 14th to the 20th centuries. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

Pingyao county in North China's Shanxi province is a millennia-old human settlement that is increasingly full of new vitality, in the wake of efforts to protect priceless cultural relics, rural vitalization and modern urban economic development. 

Since the 1980s, Pingyao has given priority to the protection of the local Ancient City of Pingyao – a UNESCO world heritage site with a history of more than 2,700 years. In the 1990s, the Shanxi provincial authorities issued Regulations on the Protection of the Ancient City of Pingyao in Shanxi Province and revised the circular in 2018.

The cultural relics department in the county recently installed a monitoring and early warning system platform for the world cultural heritage site, which can collect data and record information in real time on any cracks and inclinations of the structures.

Pingyao county, where a millennium ancient city is located, is increasingly full of new vitality. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

Hengpo village, located 15 kilometers to south of the Ancient City of Pingyao, was originally a backward village with barren land. In 2009, farmers there established the Fengwei Collective Economic Cooperative through a land investment. The cooperative has built an ecological park integrating rural tourism, green leisure and health industries.

In 2014, with the tourism boom in Pingyao county, Hengpo and Pingyao Coal Chemical Group invested 15 million yuan ($2.22 million) to start an ancient courtyard development project. So far, 10 courtyards and 80 cave-dwellings have become highlights of the village's tourism. The annual per capita net income of farmers in the village has increased from 3,000 yuan in 2011 to 16,000 yuan currently.

In recent years, Pingyao county has continued to deepen its reforms, focus on serving enterprises, cultivate and build a modern industrial system – improving the management and operation of the Pingyao Economic and Technological Development Zone and creating an optimal business environment. 

At the end of 2020, there were 72 industrial enterprises above designated size in Pingyao – those with annual turnover of 20 million yuan or more. In addition, the county completed industrial investment of 580 million yuan and generated tax of 120 million yuan that year.