Something you could work with photographically. They'd make a return trip to Beijing worthwhile. Well, Pingyao would leave you gobsmacked. The wall ringing the city is impressive enough. The grey brick fortification must rise at least 20 meters above the valley floor and the North Gate another 20 above that.
Flags ripple a rainbow of colour over the battlements.
Clearly visible from the road into Pingyao, I'd have stumbled into this place even without the benefit of friendly advice. And that advice still did not prepare me for what I found inside the walls. The cyclometer still didn't register 100 km for the day, so I remained pretty fresh and the sun hung high in the late-afternoon sky. Rather than continue toward the tall buildings a little further south west, where I'd likely find a hotel, I turned in toward the wall and its North Gate, rising and rising above. Other than the oriental architectural flares, like the hipped tile roof and wooden columns, the structure seemed little different than the medieval european battlements I've seen so many of.