Within day-trip distance from Pingyao lies China's most extravagant Qing Dynasty residence after the Forbidden City of Beijing. Absolutely colossal in size and shrewdly preserved during the Cultural Revolution, this once-private complex has opened to the public only in recent years, and is still fairly unknown to foreign visitors.
Wang's Family Compound, or Wang Jia Da Yuan, has remained under the tourism radar for decades, under cover as a destitute farming commune on the Loess Plateau. Even today most Chinese citizens outside of Shanxi Province have never heard of it, and only in the past several years has it slowly become a popular day-trip for visitors to Pingyao.
Wang's Family Compound was once the greatest of the great Jin Merchant family compounds in the region, all within 2 hours drive from Pingyao. The clans of Qiao, Qu, and Cao all had their own fortified complexes, with the Qiao's being the most famous thanks to the filming of several high profile TV dramas and movies, including Zhang Yimou's Raising the Red Lantern. But in terms of size and grandeur, nothing can beat the immense fortress of the Wangs.
The provincial government is starting to realize these compounds' potential as the next major attraction after its trio of UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Pingyao, Wutaishan, and Yungang Grottoes. And they're well on their way to becoming the province's next World Heritage Site, after getting on China's tentative list in 2006. That puts them in the same category as the village of Dangjiacun in neighboring Shaanxi or famous watertowns such as Wuzhen in the Jiangnan region.
For Wang's Family Compound the rise to tourism stardom has not been painless. You won't read this in any official tourism guides, but until the mid 1990's the whole fortress-like compound had been inhabited by a commune of local farmers, transplanted here in the 1950's when the Communist Party wanted to make a socialist statement of the region's most grandiose capitalist residence. Factor in the nation-wide destruction of priceless historical heritage during the Cultural Revolution, and you'll start to understand the dark history -- and the miraculous preservation -- of this beautiful walled town.
A much lighter experience awaits most tourists however, mostly arriving on organized tours flanked by an official guide with official, government-approved scripts. Independent tourists are few and far between due to a slight inconvenience of public transportation, as I'll explain in the Transportation section below. But the bigger problem is the lack of promotion outside of the domestic Chinese market -- my copy of Lonely Planet China has just one paragraph on it for instance.
This lack of coverage has good and bad sides -- we didn't have to squeeze through hordes of international tourists through its courtyards, but also lacking were signages, in Chinese or English, on many exhibits. In fact the whole idea of independent self-guided tourism is so new to them that there aren't even any official tourist maps, in Chinese or any other language, on how to navigate the maze of 1,118 rooms.
Thankfully there were only 1,118 rooms remaining and less on display to the public, out of an estimated 8,000 during the heyday of the Wang clan in the late 18th Century. Even so navigating through the complex was next to impossible without a guide, and we devised an unconventional but effective strategy -- simply climb to the very top of the cascading fortress to survey the entire compound, and work our way down in the reverse direction.
Visitors enter the main gate into the eastern complex known as Gao Jia Ya, into a web of interconnecting Siheyuan courtyards stretching all the way up the sloping fortress. A broad brick-constructed bridge connects to the western, even larger complex of Hong Men Bu, where visitors can reach the very top of the fort for a spectacular panoramic view of the Compound and the Loess Plateau in the background.
But the best view at the top was a living picture of the Yaodong cave dwelling village behind the fortress. These are peasant farmers who, like millions others living on the Loess Plateau in Northern China, have made homes out of man-made caves for generations. Oblivious to the daily onslaught of curious tourists above head, kids chase the house dog and newborn chicks follow the hen around the courtyard as in any rural Chinese village.
The Wang clan however has long vacated for decades, displaced by the commune of impoverished farmers under the regime of Chairman Mao. But Mao and the Peoples' Commune are long gone now, and nostalgic slogans such as the above "Learning for the Sake of Revolution" can only be found at the Confucius Temple just below the Compound.
How the Compound miraculously survived the Cultural Revolution would be a long and fascinating story in itself. Ingenious villagers camouflaged magnificent sculptures inside dirt mounds and concealed intricately carved window sills with mud fillings, plastered with Chairman Mao slogans. While Chinese youngsters today cheerily strike their V-sign poses beside these priceless Qing Dynasty artifacts, the elderly surely remember the difficult battle in preserving their own heritage, especially in this remote corner of rural China.
So while you admire the stunning architectural details at Wang's Family Compound, be appreciative of the national treasures that have survived to this date in front of your eyes. Understand the dark history behind the senseless mass destruction of cultural heritage, and don't allow humanity to make the same mistake again.
TRANSPORTATION
From Pingyao's long distance bus station (outside of North Gate) there is only one direct bus per day, departing at 08:40 and arriving around 10:00, staying for 2.5 hours, and heading back at 12:40 towards Pingyao. That's barely enough time in my opinion, as the Compound is bigger than most visitors can imagine before entering the front gate. And that doesn't even include the Confucius Temple outside of the Compound. The public bus is also not cheap, at RMB 34 per roundtrip.
Another option is to take the local train to the neighboring town of Jiexiu (40 minutes), then transfer to the local bus to Wang's. We didn't try it, but that's a more flexible and cheaper option if you desire more free time at the site.
We took the third option of joining the daily van transport organized by the Zhengjia Hostel, for RMB 50 per roundtrip. Reservation is taken at the front desk and the van conveniently takes off right in front of the guesthouse, saving a trip to either the bus station or the train station. There is at least one departure per day early in the morning, but during our visit the demand was high enough to have a second departure at 11:30. The length of stay at Wang's depends entirely on passenger consensus, which for our group was 3 hours. One big plus was that the driver was quite willing to drop us off at the breathtaking Shuanglin Temple on the way back, since it's practically on the route.
And of course, the fourth option of hiring your own taxi for the day (approx RMB 400) is always there. This offers the additional benefit of dropping by other attractions along the way, such as the underground castle at Zhang Bi village or Mianshan mountain.
Whichever option you take, there is so much around the vicinity of Pingyao to keep the curious traveler occupied for four or five days at least. The combination of the Ancient City of Pingyao, Wang's Family Courtyard, and of course the deliciously rustic cuisine of Shanxi Province would make a great side-trip from either Xi'an or Beijing. Or if you can spare the time, combine the three for a grand tour of Northern China. Both your tastebuds and camera will be thankful.
