Taigu county in north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo/CGTN)
If you ever happen to visit Taigu county in north China's Shanxi Province, chances are you would never guess it was once the richest places in the country.
The seemingly ordinary town lies 500 kilometers southwest of Beijing with its population of 300,000. It is lined with crumbling walls and crisscrossed with cobbled lanes, dotted with vendor carts and wheelbarrows.
So, how did it get its nickname as "China's Wall Street"?
Taigu was one of the three hometowns of the jinshang, or the "Shanxi merchants". They were the nation's most powerful and prominent businessmen during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The huge wealth of Shanxi merchants was initially accumulated by trading salt. They then expanded into a range of industries including cotton, tea, medicine, fur and finance and for 500 years, they thrived.
Today, in Taigu, their legacy lingers in the form of expansive courtyard homes - two, in particular.
