平遥古城英语介绍.ppt

The Ancient City of Pingyao
Pingyao City Wall
The wall is 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 had a tower above it, three of which have been rebuilt. Each gate used to have a drawbridge to cross the moat, which today is outside three sides of the city and is more than meters deep and meters wide.
NorthGate
City wall
North Gate
Fake cannons
Pingyao City Wall
The tortoise is a symbol of eternity. Seventy-two watch towers were built every fifty to one hundred meters along the top. Two-meter high walls were built along the outside of the wall’s top, with 3,000 crenelations with openings for shooting. These represent the 72 disciples and more than 3,000 students of Confucius. Each corner formerly had a grand tower, but only the Great Scholar Tower in the southeast remains, along with one roll-call platform. A temple used to occupy the large platform on the eastern wall.
City wall inside
City wall
Draft Banks Of Shanxi Merchants
Rishengchang
Courtyard
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, mercial groups that engaged in business nationwide, with Shanxi Province having some of the most important ones and Pingyao as the center. The Xiyucheng dye store on Xi Da Jie dealt in remittance and in 1824 became the first draft bank in China, dealing in bank drafts rather than in silver or gold money. Known as Rishengchang (Sunrise Prosper ity) , it was the cornerstone of modern Chinese banking.
Draft Banks Of Shanxi Merchants
Courtyard
Clerks at work
During the hundred years that draft banking lasted in China, Pingyao became the hub as other local merchants opened similar banks. Branch banks were soon set up in major cities in China and in Asia, leading to gre