Running the city walls of Pingyao

We were up and out early to run the length of Pingyao's ancient city walls in the morning sunshine, one of those morning runs that feels like it justifies the entire trip. The route clocked in at 6.6 kilometres, weaving partly inside the walls and partly along a pathway through the gardens that wrap around the outside.

We'd have loved to run on top of the walls themselves but it wasn't to be, for two reasons. First, the wall-top walkway is ticketed and we'd used our ticket for a walk the previous day. Second, and more decisively, the entire eastern section was closed off for refurbishment work, so even if we had got another ticket we would still have had to turn back halfway round. But actually, running by the rammed earth walls, along the moat and through the gardens was wonderful!

This the kind of run that is hard to replicate anywhere else. Pingyao's walls are some of the best-preserved Ming-dynasty fortifications in China, and running along them as the city woke up, and before the tour groups arrived, felt like a real privilege.