Qinglong town, or "azure dragon town", 10 kilometers north of Taiyuan in Shanxi, used to be a village surrounded by sweet wormwoods sitting at the main road connecting Shanxi province, a historical economic powerhouse, with Inner Mongolia, since early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) .

The village prospered with the booming of a big family surnamed Wang from early Qing Dynasty, when an uprising farmers' troop led by Li Zicheng deposited some military supplies at the warehouse of Wang's home as they fled from Beijing.

Li said that if they did not come back in three years, those materials left behind would belong to the Wang family. Three years later, after the Wangs heard that Li had died in southern China, they opened the warehouse, and found it filled with gold and silver.

Using the wealth, the Wang family took their business in medicine and food nationwide. The village was expanded along the official road and became a compound serving as living quarters for local squires and farmers, a regional commercial and trade center, and a military pass.

In 1900, the Empress Dowager Cixi fled from Beijing with the Emperor Guangxu to escape the invading Western colonial armies. They received a warm welcome at Wang's home.

In the remaining 11 years of the Qing Dynasty, the village had preferential treatment from the royal family in return.

The Wang family's business declined in the warlord era after 1920s as China's trade diverted from the continent to the sea. The family left the village for local farmers. Although it remained a local trade center, its influence out of Taiyuan disappeared quickly.

The Yangqu county government rebuilt the village from about five years ago to make it a tourist spot. The project made good use of the old bricks and tiles.

The village now looks more like a small ancient city, encircled by high walls and ramparts on a mountain slope with the ancient road running through it from north to south.

After entering the main gate at the south of the village along the road, you can find a big temple where locals worship the gods of military, wealth and health on the right, and a performance stage on the left.

In the middle of the village are also two other temples. On the east of the road is a temple for scholars and on the west is a temple for military strategists.

Local villagers still pray in the three temples.

Beyond these public buildings, on either side of the road are shops of local specialties, entrances to some big courtyards, and forts built by local warlords.

The big courtyards, which used to belong to different clans of Wang family, were taken over by some local warlords, landlords and farmers.

Each big courtyard is like a small palace made up of hundreds of rooms, some of which are built for chefs, horsemen, servants, guards and even monks.

The big courtyards are divided into four to five mid-sized courtyards that are arranged one after another, and each mid-sized courtyard is further divided into difference sections by rows of houses.

Most of the buildings were built with grey bricks, black tiles and wood. The screen walls, eaves and ridges are decorated with delicate patterns, which depict scenes from some ancient fables, or lively tile and brick carvings portraying some auspicious animals.

There are five four-storey high blockhouses, including the entrance and the exit, built on the 2.5-kilometer main road in the village, dividing the small city into three sections. This structure was built to prevent fire spreading from one section to the other, and to keep out invaders.

The renovation project mainly focuses on the first two sections, including part of the underground tunnel, which is another must-see of the old village.

The tunnel system, equipped with ventilation facilities, connects every home, and can accommodate the whole population of the village. There are warehouses to store food and water, arsenals, hospitals, living rooms and sniper holes.

The tunnel was dug over a period of 200 years, and was used several times to protect the villagers from local bandits and the invading Japanese armies in the 1940s.

The villagers are very friendly. They are proud of their past, and like to tell the stories of every courtyard.

(China Daily USA 06/04/2015 page10)