Yulin Town

Yulin Town, in the far northern section of Shaanxi Province, lies at the boundary between a Yellow Soil Plateau and the Mao Wu Su Desert (Maowusu shamo). The town is renowned as a garrison and patrol post that worked the northern fringes of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) empire. Although a tiny town and not especially old, Yulin still retains much of its charm through being little renovated.

The town boasts a large number of sights for its size and the most notable include the fortress and beacon tower at the Zhengbei Terrace (Zhengbei tai), the Incense Burner Temple (Xianglu si), the remainder of the ancient Great Wall (Changcheng) and an old Bell Tower (Zhong lou). The nicest section of town is the Old Quarter, which still retains its Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing (1644-1911 AD) Dynasty look, hidden behind encircling walls and old, stone gates. This area is great to walk around, with pebble paved alleys, grey-tiled quadrangular courtyards (Siheyuan) and delicate copper rings upon wooden gates and windows. In places you will come across the original city walls.