I ARRIVED at Pingyao’s little train station on a grey autumn morning. We had braved the hard sleeper train from Xi’an looking to recharge for a day or two before continuing our journey northwards to see the Datong Hanging Monastery, 80km away.

As it turned out, we never made it to Datong: Pingyao’s quaint Ming-Qing courtyard houses and cobbled streets made us feel as if we had stepped back in time, and we were happy to stay longer than we originally planned.

Pingyao is a small walled town. With a map, available from any guesthouse, it is easy to walk around town and see its main sights. As with most old Chinese towns, Pingyao has a couple of arteries that run north-south and east-west, with smaller streets and lanes branching out across the city. Few cars are seen on its mostly narrow streets. Most residents walk or cycle, although dusty motorbike carts — a bike with a six-seater cart attached — are available for hire.

Walking gave us an opportunity to appreciate the beautiful archways and decorated gateways that straddle the streets, and the ancient buildings with their elaborately decorated shopfronts.

Nan Dajie, or South Street, however, appears to be Pingyao’s commercial backbone, and is flanked on both sides by shops, restaurants and guesthouses. The embroidered shoe insoles were exquisite. Most designs featured flowers, dragons and phoenixes, and prices varied, depending on the fabric used as well. After a long day of hard bargaining, we were glad to find a quiet side street with a row of houses offering foot massage.

Pingyao isn’t quite on the main tourist route, as it is located inland in Shanxi, which is one of China’s poorest provinces. Yet it is touristfriendly. Mr Deng, the proprietor of our guesthouse, and his wife speak English and arrange day trips for the guests. The Dengs also offer their guests apple pancakes, Chinese style, and authentic Italian coffee throughout the day.

The establishment may be a few hundred years old, with traditional kang beds in the rooms, but offer modern amenities. We were there at the end of October when the weather was starting to turn cold. The rooms were well heated, and the kang beds had soft mattresses and down blankets. Hot water was available all day in the ensuite shower.

Legendary courtyards

We joined a few guests on a day trip to see the large family residences that Pingyao is famous for. A popular film site, the 10,640 sq m 18th-century Qiao Jia Dayuan or Qiao Family Courtyard was the location for Raise The Red Lantern, which stars Gong Li.

Despite its maze of courtyards, rooms, and corridors, Qiao Jia Dayuan pales in comparison with the more spectacular, but less well-known Wang Jia Dayuan.

More like a castle, the Wang Family Courtyard was successively added on to by the family over the years.

The huge complex is still home to hundreds of family members. It even has an academy for the teaching of the classics.

Behind Wang Jia Dayuan’s walls are cave dwellings, which are homes built into caves in the mountainside. Shanxi, a mountainous region deep in China, has extreme weather. These abodes show how well people have adjusted to the rugged environment, as the caves are naturally cool in summer and warm in winter. Many people still live in them.

One surprising tourist attraction, if it can be billed as such, is Zhangbi Castle. Built in the 6th to the 7th century, Zhangbi Castle has a fascinating network of underground tunnels built on three levels. Meant as a military defence against invaders, the underground maze has rooms for living and storage of grain and food, presumably allowing a whole army to live below ground for some time. Several of the rooms are large and their ceilings high enough for horses and other large animals. The tunnels also have peepholes for spying on intruders. At one end, the pathway opens to a view of a deep gorge — a lookout point.

I have collected in Beijing old furniture pieces and household items like hat stands and even a footbinding rack, and it was in Pingyao that I learnt how they were arranged or used in households of a longgone age. It is often places like Pingyao that offer a glimpse of another era rarely seen now in modern China.