China’s modern banking industry was born nearly 200 years ago in a small town in the middle of nowhere, a place where today ordinary people still live in the midst of extraordinary architectural splendour. Other Chinese cities have been more than happy to bury their history under skyscrapers but Pingyao, the original Chinese Wall Street and perhaps the best-preserved ancient city in China, chose not to.
No one quite knows why: maybe it was just too poor after the Pingyao banks went bust in the early 20th century along with the Qing dynasty that they bankrolled. Maybe – stranded more than 350 miles southwest of Beijing – it was too remote or just too unimportant to pave with parking lots. Yet now it is places such as Pingyao that are helping China rediscover the value of preserving what little is left of the country’s ancient buildings – not least because there is so much money to be made from them.
For decades China despised the old and idolised the new but when countries get rich, their citizens always wax nostalgic. Pingyao, which was declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1997, is a perfect vehicle for the burgeoning middle class’s new-found love of the past. The city was founded in the 14th century and has hundreds of Ming and Qing dynasty courtyards where people live much as they did in the time of emperors. Ask middle-aged residents how the city has changed since their childhoods and they often say “not much”: ask the same question in any other city in China and residents may struggle to point out anything that remains the same.