Pingyao - Raise the Red Lantern
Shanxi Province, China
It is said that Pingyao, a small town in central Shanxi, was the nation’s key financial center over a hundred years ago. The merchants from Shanxi Province were undoubtedly the most powerful and affluent of all merchants during the Qing Dynasty, when Pingyao held China’s wealth in its hands. 
With its power and affluence long gone, Pingyao is no longer associated with the status it once held, but the town still retains traces of its former glory. This tour will retrace the memories of Shanxi’s prosperous past, by visiting luxurious mansions once inhabited by the powerful merchants, buildings which once housed shops and banks, and century-old structures adorned with rare and exquisite woodwork.
