Taiyuan 太原Tàiyuán

About Taiyuan

Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital on the Fen River, is an industrial city with a history of some 2,500 years. Jinci Temple, 20 km south-west of the centre, has a Song-dynasty Hall of the Holy Mother with carved wooden dragons coiled round its pillars, and the Shanxi Museum is strong in bronzes, ceramics and Buddhist sculpture. The two Ming pagodas of Twin Pagoda Temple stand in the south-east, and tounao, a thick medicinal soup, is a traditional winter breakfast.

What to eat in Taiyuan

• Tounao medicinal breakfast soup (头脑)
• Liuweizhai braised meats (六味斋酱肉)
• Laoshuku glutinous rice balls (老鼠窟元宵)

Featured places in Taiyuan

• 

  Jinci Temple 晋祠

  Song-dynasty halls, painted clay maidservants and a cross-shaped bridge at the Jin springs

  Best time: Apr–May, Sep–Oct · Time needed: Half a day · 5A scenic area · National heritage site

• 

  Shanxi Museum 山西博物院

  Bronzes of the ancient state of Jin, Buddhist statues and tomb treasures on the Fen River

  Best time: Year-round · Time needed: Half a day

Listed sites in Taiyuan

45 listed sites are in Taiyuan. These are the 12 rated 5A or 4A; see all 45 in the Shanxi list.

• Baoyuan Old Vinegar Workshop 宝源老醋坊 4A scenic area · on the map
  A vinegar workshop and museum rebuilt in 2006 by a local vinegar company in Qingxu, the county titled China's vinegar capital.
• China Coal Museum 中国煤炭博物馆 4A scenic area
  A national first-grade museum on the history of coal, opened in 1989 on the western side of Taiyuan.
• Donghu Vinegar Garden 东湖醋园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A visitor site at a Taiyuan vinegar maker, laid out as a working factory museum on how Shanxi aged vinegar is produced, with displays of both the traditional and the modern process.
• Fen River Scenic Area 汾河景区 4A scenic area · on the map
  A 43 km riverside park along the Fen River through Taiyuan, running from the low-water bridge at Shanlan in the north to about 2 km beyond Yingbin Bridge in the south and crossed by 24 bridges.
• Gao Junyu Former Residence and Memorial Hall 高君宇故居纪念馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
  The family home of Gao Junyu, an early Communist Party leader who founded the party and youth organisations in Shanxi, in Fenglingdi village, Loufan County.
• Liuweizhai Yunmengwu 六味斋云梦坞 4A scenic area · on the map
  The visitor area of the Liuweizhai food-factory park in Qingxu County, run by a Taiyuan food company founded in 1738 that is known for cooked meats.
• Mengshan Giant Buddha 蒙山大佛 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A giant seated Buddha carved into a cliff on Mount Meng from 551 under the Northern Qi, which Taiyuan's heritage pages describe as the largest cliff Buddha of the Northern Dynasties period.
• Qinglong Ancient Town 青龙古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  A group of Ming- and Qing-style buildings in Qinglong village, Yangqu County, presented as a tourist old town with temples, gardens, an ancestral hall and an underground passage, plus a food street and folk performances.
• Taiyuan Botanical Garden 太原植物园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A botanical garden of about 2,730 mu (roughly 1.8 square kilometres) in Jinyuan district, opened in 2020 on land that had held coal depots and polluting factories.
• Taiyuan Forest Park 太原森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A city forest park of 224 hectares on the northern edge of central Taiyuan, planned from 1990, with more than 100,000 trees around an artificial lake of 378 mu, an arboretum and a bird garden.
• Taiyuan Zoo 太原动物园 4A scenic area · on the map
  The city zoo of Taiyuan, in the north-east of the city, with about 2,000 animals in zones for birds, tropical and subtropical animals, primates and grassland herbivores.
• Zilin Vinegar Park 紫林醋文化工业园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A vinegar-factory visitor site run by the Zilin vinegar company in Qingxu, the county titled China's vinegar capital, built around a vinegar museum.

All 45 listed sites in Taiyuan

Getting to Taiyuan

Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.

• Linfen 临汾 high-speed train 1 h 9 min, 36 a day, from ¥73
• Datong 大同 high-speed train 1 h 23 min, 54 a day, from ¥112
• Zhengzhou 郑州 high-speed train 2 h 25 min, 25 a day, from ¥228
• Tianjin 天津 high-speed train 3 h 3 min, 10 a day, from ¥217; one nonstop flight a day, 1 h 5 min in the air
• Xi'an 西安 high-speed train 2 h 45 min, 47 a day, from ¥190

All routes

On the map

Open Taiyuan on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)