Twenty-five courtyards
Behind high walls.
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The home of the Qiao family, one of the richest of the Shanxi merchant clans, whose best-known member was the financier Qiao Zhiyong (1818–1907); building began in 1756 under the Qianlong Emperor, and architects count it among the finest private residences surviving in northern China. The house has 313 rooms arranged around six large and nineteen small courtyards, enclosed by high walls like those of a fort, with decorated chimneys rising from its roofs and stone lanes linking the courtyards. It became famous worldwide when the director Zhang Yimou filmed «Raise the Red Lantern» here, and a television series about the family was shot here in 2006; today it is a museum displaying the family's furniture and belongings and the customs of old Shanxi. Tickets cost CNY 115, or CNY 58 concession, and it opens from 8:30 to 18:30 from April to October and until 17:00 in winter, per visitor guides. It lies on the way between Pingyao and Taiyuan.
Behind high walls.
On the roofs.
Of Zhang Yimou.
Qi County, about 30 km north-east of Pingyao
The director Zhang Yimou filmed his famous film in this house, which made it known worldwide; tickets are now CNY 115, per visitor guides.