Photos from Pingle Ancient Town
As a part of Tea-horse Ancient Road, Pingle ancient town (平乐古镇) was an important town on the ancient South Sichuan Road and South Silk Road since more than 2000 years ago. This peaceful riverside town is a popular destination to Chinese artists and painters. Beautiful scenery that made by old bridges above the river, dancing willow trees and bamboo sea, people playing majang and families on holidays… Pingle ancient town is a popular weekend getaway place for the locals.
Teahouse, that was what got us to Pingle. This ancient town has one of the finest teahouses in the entire China (teahouses are centered in Sichuan area) for its riverside view and laid back atmosphere. We tried to visit some of the best teahouses in the area that were listed on Lonely Planet China Guide. We tried more than a half of them, and Pingle was quite a success. I enjoyed the peaceful time drinking the flower tea I accidentally ordered instead of green tea, whilst looking at the water flowing and willow tree dancing. It was a good place to see the world go by. It’s amazing how different the lifestyles are in the same country. Some are having the world’s longest working hours, but some are playing majang and drinking tea all day in the teahouses.
There are plenty of teahouses across the river, where you can also board bamboo boats or wander away from the water for a rural stroll in the untouristy surroundings. It’s a very popular destination to Chinese locals on the weekends, but you can easily avoid the crowd by walking along the river. There are also quite diverse eateries in town, don’t forget to try the local specialty, pumpkin bread and corn bread.
Pingle is 65km away from Chengdu city, and easily reachable by the daily buses from Chengdu.






















Mmm…the pumpkin bread looks great! It’s good to see that history is being actively preserved in China. I think it’s such a shame when beautiful places with so much experience and spirit are lost to the concrete jungle. Thanks for sharing with us this encouraging post!
Beautiful photos. I can feel some sense of peacefulness and calmness in them. It must be exciting to find quite a number of teahouses in this place alone.
Great Photos! I like!
Juno, did you do this as a daytrip from Chengdu or stay overnight in Pingle? Which would you recommend?
Hey Stephen, we took a day trip from Chengdu. It was quite busy because it was during a weekend, so it was good not to stay over. You could probably do everything in one day – it’s a small town. What are you doing there?