Qiao Home and Zhenguo Temple

On our last day in Ping Yao we hired a car to visit some more distant attractions. We first went to the Qiao Family Home, a courtyard estate of 313 rooms of a rich family built in the eighteenth century. A recent television series was filmed here, and so it was very crowded with Chinese tourists groups. The buildings were elaborately decorated with paintings and carving, but the most interesting part for me was the furnished interiors that gave some impression of what life was actually like in these old homes. Other buildings housed local museum pieces. The most interesting was a display of the instruments/noise makers that different salesmen used to announce their wares.


Interior


Nine Dragon Lamp


Roof Painting


Carving
After a lunch of local specialties in a restaurant definitely off the western-tourist track we visited Zhenguo Temple which has what is said to be the oldest wooden building in China. The umbrella roof was a very impressive layered structure of crisscrossing beams.


Wooden Roof

The halls housed various Buddhist sculptures and frescos, again with no photos allowed. Some of the outside paintings were good too.






Temple Paintings
This temple too seemed rather neglected, with many of the figures flaking straw from cracks and breakages. One of the side buildings was propped up in an alarming way.


Wall Struts

Xiaoqin's parents live at one of the city primary schools, itself converted long ago from a large courtyard house. School was out for the summer break, except for some surprisingly young children taking a computer class. Here are a few pictures of the school.


School Yard


Blackboard


Class is Out!