Wang Family Compound

Mian Shan (or Silky Mountain) is noted for its natural scenery, especially for its cultural and religious relics. AAAAA Tourist Attractions of China. It is also the birthplace of the Qingming Festival (Grave Cleaning Day), which is one of China’s most important traditional festivals and items of intangible cultural heritage. The mountain is located in Jiexiu City, 40 km south of Pingyao. Tours often combine this with the Wang Family Compound and Zhangbi Ancient Castle as they are close together. Ticket packages include multiple bus tickets, which seem necessary to buy in order to get to the mountain's many attractions.

The park is a combination of danger, strangeness and seclusion. It is a natural scenic spot with a beautiful ecological environment, dense forests, open meadows and beautiful scenery. It is also rich in water resources, with many waterfalls, forming a more spectacular water system. Therefore, it was awarded the “Most Influential Forest Park” by the State Forestry Administration of the People's Republic of China. The scenic spot offers many recreational activities such as watching the sea of clouds at the top of the mountain, rafting in the valley, taking part in the water carnival, and so on. It is the only eco-tourism resort in northern China to feature a combination of canyons, forests, alpine meadows and diversified meteorological landscapes.

Zhangbi Castle was founded in the Sixteen Kingdoms period with a construction area of 12,000 square meters. It is based on the traditional Chinese horoscope and the concepts of Earth and earth. The castle has a north-south gate, a brick north gate, and an outer gate. The outer gate was used to fortify the barbican and was topped with religious temples. The Barbican Gate opens to the northeast and forms two gateways with the north gate. The two gates are not on the same axis, which not only follows the principles of ancient military defense, but also implies the use of geomancy. Nanbao Gate is a stone gate with a carved stone dragon head. Outside the gate, there are nine red stone paved roads, symbolizing the dragon's beard.

A city god temple dating from the Ming Dynasty. Like other city god temples, Jieixu's city god temple is used to worship the local city god.

The Qu Family Compound is another extended family residence built near Pingyao Ancient City by a successful Shanxi merchant clan over a number of generations. This 300-year-old compound was very unusual in having five layers of courtyard, and the entire compound has 8 large courtyards, 19 smaller courtyards, and 240 rooms overall. One enters the compound from a street built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and which retains the architectural feel of that period. Despite its great size, it is said that what is seen here represents only about one-fifth of the Qu family's estate. The Qu family was a very successful example of the Shanxi merchant, and their estate used to occupy most of the eastern half of Qi County. Overall, they owned 10 compounds containing over 1000 rooms. During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese occupied the compound, and the family had to temporarily relocate their head office to Chengdu. A Japanese observation post built above the roof of one of the buildings in the complex remains. A few blocks away from the main compound is the Changyuchuan Teahouse, which also belonged to the Qu family. The ticket to the Qu Family Compound also includes entrance to a series of six museums in the area, including those dedicated to rulers, scales, mirrors, and vessels for measuring rice. The most interesting one is an abacus museum which includes a pagoda built completely from 668 abacuses.