Travel Destinations: Taiyuan, China

Taiyuan is a lovely little city in Shanxi Province, cosmopolitan enough but without the hustle and bustle of the larger cities. With a population of 1.83 million, most international travellers come here to carry onto Pingyao or Wutai Shan, but now most are staying on for the fantasic museum which opened in 2005, which has became one of the best in China.

Shanxi Museum (Shanxi Bowuguan) is a fantastic new museum which raises the bar for all other provincial museums in the province. There are three floors dedicated to displaying artefacts uncovered in Shanxi, from prehistoric fossils and northern dynasty tomb objects, to local opera exhibits to Buddhist statues. All galleries have English captions. Highlights of the museum include some bronze sacrificial vessels (zun) fashioned in the shape of animals from the state of Jin on the second floor. There are also some beautiful burial artefacts from the Northern Wei and Qi periods on the third floor.

If you like cultural activities then Taiyuan has more for you. Chongshan Temple (Chongshan Si) has a double-eaved wooden hall which houses three magnificent statues – Samantabhadra (the Bodhisattva of Truth), Guanyin (the Buddhist Godden of Mercy with 1000 arms) and Manjusri (the Bodhisattva of Wisdom with 1000 alms bowls).

If you are a lover of museums and have already been to the Shanxi Museum, take a trip to the Shanxi Provincial Museum (Shanxi Sheng Bowuguan). The main section of the museum is within a temple dedicated to the Daoist immortal Lu Dongbin where you can see an amazing collection of Daoist and Buddhist statues. The Confucian temple (Wen Miao) is the second section of the provincial museum has a good collection of Ming buildings and is located south of Chongshan Temple.

Twin Pagoda Temple (Shuangta Si) is another great place to visit. This temple has two pagodas dating from the Ming dynasty, each 13 storeys high. One of these pagodas is open to the public to climb, but you should only undertake this if you are comfortable with climbing dark spiral staircases.

About 25km southwest of Taiyuan is Jinci Temple (Jinci Si), a Buddhist temple that dates from 1023 CE. The main structure is called Hall of the Sacred Mother which was constructed about 1000 years ago. It is simply beautiful, with eight wooden dragons coiling up at the front row of pillars. There are 42 clay maid figures from the Song dynasty, fashioned in the form of the Sacred Lady, the mother of Prince Shuyu would founded the state of Jin.

You can get here by air, bus or train. There are flights to Taiyuan from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai or Xi’an. The bus station is a five minute walk from the train station where you can dropped off from several different cities in Shanxi and further afield. Train tickets to Taiyuan from other cities can be a little tricky to get but easy enough when you depart Taiyuan for other places.