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From banking booms to hotel rooms
From:ChinaDaily   |  2019-11-21 10:00

Formerly a financial center and then a resources-reliant province, Shanxi has found new sources of wealth

TAIYUAN - Once a deserted silk shop, the Xinglongyi Inn in Pingyao, Shanxi province, is now one of many centuries-old buildings taking advantage of the city's UNESCO heritage listing.

The inn has a 4.5 ranking on Trip-Advisor, the world's leading travel platform, and attracts hundreds of foreign visitors every year.

"From this house, my ancestors developed the tea trade with businesspeople from as far away as Russia in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)," said Zhao Xiaohong, owner of the inn. "But the locals seldom saw foreigners here in the old days. Nowadays, half of my guests are from Europe."

When she inherited the building it was dilapidated, but she restored it to keep the original exterior and turned the interior into hotel rooms.

Bart Johannes, a hotel guest from the Netherlands, said: "The buildings are well protected. The hostess is nice and can speak English. Best of all is the courtyard, a perfect place for drinking tea and reading."

Pingyao, an ancient walled city famed for its economic history, was named a world heritage by UNESCO in 1997.

Banking center

The city put itself on the map in the 19th century as China's financial center. Banks flourished as Shanxi merchants expanded their businesses across the country and abroad.

"In its heyday, Pingyao hosted 22 bank centers with outlets set up in 69 cities and townships nationwide. They controlled nearly half of the money in the country," said Gao Chunping, a researcher with the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

Gao said many visitors asked why the prototype of China's banking system had mushroomed in the landlocked hinterland. He said because of its barren, remote location, the locals developed trade and finance to earn a living.

But Pingyao's golden days as a hub of trade and finance did not last. In the early 20th century, the banks collapsed like dominoes as the Qing Empire crumbled. There was an influx of foreign banks and later the country fell into war.

Despite the twists and turns, Shanxi's financial sector helped lay the foundation for China's banking system. The province witnessed the establishment of two forerunners of China's central bank during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

With the two banks, the Communist Party of China was able to issue currency in the 1940s before the founding of New China in 1949. The banks later merged to become the People's Bank of China.

But it was Shanxi's rich coal resources that had a more profound impact on national development.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the province has produced more than 19 billion metric tons of raw coal and sent it to 26 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities to fuel local economic development.

Last year, Shanxi's raw coal output was 893 million tons, more than 340 times the output in 1949.

However, the fast growth has left scars on the landscape. Coal mining in the province seriously reduced the coverage of vegetation and worsened pollution. At least 3,000 square kilometers of land in Shanxi subsided as a result of coal mining, which also disrupted groundwater supplies.

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