Discover Pingyao
Qiao Family Compound
乔家大院
The courtyard house of a Qing merchant dynasty, made famous nationally by the film Raise the Red Lantern and a hit television series. Smaller and far busier than the Wang compound, but the domestic detail and the folk-custom displays are good.
The story
What makes this place special
The Qiao compound at Qiaojiabao in Qi county, between Pingyao and Taiyuan, was the home of the Qiao merchant family, who made their fortune in tea, grain and later banking across the Qing. Its fame is largely cinematic: it was the shooting location for Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern and for the television series Qiao's Grand Courtyard, which made it the best-known Shanxi merchant house in China and by far the busiest. Architecturally it is a single-level group of six main courtyards with around twenty subsidiary ones.
What you’ll discover
A dense, flat, symmetrical complex of grey-brick courtyards entered through one gate, with rooms furnished as a wealthy merchant household and museum displays on the family's businesses and on Shanxi folk custom. Carved screen walls, lattice windows and roof ridges are the decorative interest. It is compact enough to see in 90 minutes and heavily signposted, with large volumes of domestic tour groups.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Go for the film connection and the furnished interiors; go to the Wang compound instead if you want architecture. Chinese visitors come here because of the screen, foreign visitors often cannot work out why it is so busy.
- This is the easier of the two compounds to walk - it is essentially on one level - which makes it the right choice for anyone who cannot manage Wang's hillside stairs.
- Arrive at opening or in the last 90 minutes of the day. Mid-morning to mid-afternoon it is wall-to-wall tour groups in narrow courtyards, and the experience is a shuffle.
- It is roughly halfway between Pingyao and Taiyuan, so it works best as a stop on the transfer day rather than a return trip from Pingyao.
- The folk-custom displays - weddings, festivals, household management - are better than the usual and are where the compound earns its keep beyond the film.
- Separate ticket; not on the Pingyao combined pass.
When to come
Opening time or late afternoon on a weekday. Avoid Chinese public holidays entirely - this is one of the worst-crowded sites in Shanxi.
Getting around
The most accessible of the Shanxi merchant houses. The courtyards are flat, paved and at essentially one level, so a wheelchair can cover most of the main route with help over the raised gate thresholds, which are the chief obstacle. Rooms are entered up one or two steps. A bad knee manages the whole visit comfortably. Crowding is the practical barrier rather than the terrain.
Worth knowing before you go
It lost and then regained its 5A rating after complaints about over-commercialisation, and it is the most crowded of the Shanxi compounds. If you only have time for one, most travellers now prefer the Wang Family Courtyard.
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