Visitors follow the story line by moving from scene to scene. The drama centers on the vicissitudes of the Wang family, who enjoyed a high reputation in martial arts circles in the Qing Dynasty, and ran the prestigious Tong Xinggong Biao Ju in Pingyao. The Biao Ju was established by Wang Zhengqing in 1855. However, later Wang's offspring were arrested by Tsarist Russia, and thus Zhao Yishuo, the protagonist, starts a seven-year journey with 232 escorts before saving the Wang family's bloodline.
The charm of Pingyao lies not only in the ancient architecture, but also in local culture and moral traditions. Wang Chaoge, the director in chief, said she and her team had tried to integrate drama, dancing, photography, music and other factors both traditionally and in a modern way. The team did thorough research of local historical facts before starting to create the play.
Besides enjoying the story, visitors can experience 28 kinds of Shanxi features - such as merchants' bodyguard customs, clan culture, local wheaten food culture and other traditional cultural habits - in four independent zones.
The drama has now become a new identity of Pingyao, judging from its box office popularity. Pingyao Impression Cultural Tourism Co sees the drama as not only a tourism project, but also a spiritual heritage. If the city landscape shows Pingyao history, then the drama displays living habits of local citizens.
A transformation from sightseeing tour to in-depth exploration
The drama perfectly integrates culture and tourism, which promotes more in-depth tourism in Pingyao, and visitors tend to spend more days there. Feng Jianping, director of Shanxi's tourism department, said the success of the drama proves that culture is the soul of tourism development and that they depend on each other. Pursuing beauty as well as knowledge is the ultimate goal of Shanxi tourism.
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