Do you know an old city called “Pingyao” in Shanxi? The old city is not far from Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province (省). It's a town with a long history of more than two thousand years.

    The old city is not very large. It is only 2.25 square kilometers in size. And there are no tall buildings here. Most of the buildings have only two floors. And most of them are made of stones (石头). There are many Chinese-style shops on each side of the street.

    Pingyao is a square city. The city has a wall around it. It's about 6 km long and 12 m high. The wall has six gates. And you mustn't miss the nice food in Pingyao. Try Pingyao beef and you are sure to fall in love with it.

    Pingyao is a place worth (值得) a visit. You can take buses or trains here. It's less than 2 hours' bus ride from Taiyuan. It costs you only 20 yuan. If you take a train, it will take you less time, only one and a half hours. And if you want to go to Pingyao from Beijing, the train ride takes only about 6 hours.

The City of Pingyao

    Young people are often unhappy when they are with their parents. They say that their parents don't understand them. They often think their parents are too strict with them and they are never given a free hand. (让…自由行动)

    Parents often find it difficult to win their children's trust and they seem to forget how they themselves felt when they were young. For example, young people like to do things without thinking much. It's one of their ways to show that they have grown up and they can deal with difficult things.

    Young people often make their parents angry by clothes they want, the music they enjoy, the hairstyle they have and something else. But they don't like to cause any trouble. They just feel that in this way they can be cut off (阻断) from the old people's world and they want to make a new culture of their own.

If you plan to control your life, you'd better win your parents over (把…争取过来) and try to get them to understand you.

Information Card

    Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me, "You should have goals(目标） like climbing the mountain." Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed ，we couldn't have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience (耐力).

    Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing. I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds' singing, but as time passed, I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted to quit climbing. In fact, I hated it at that mountain, but my father said to me, "You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can't see it before you reach the top. ①Only there at the top, can you see all of the nice things, just like in life."

    At that time, ②我太小以至于不能理解他的话。But later after that, I got new hope and confidence. I found myself standing at the top of the mountain. And there, I could see the whole of the sky, which was as clear as crystal (水晶).