Taiyuan

Capital of Shanxi, gateway to the Pingyao ancient walled town and the Yungang and Datong-area Buddhist cliff carvings. The home of vinegar.

Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi province, a city of around five million in a basin surrounded by mountains, and the operational base for one of the most coherent regional heritage circuits in northern China. Shanxi was at the centre of Chinese civilisation for several of the most significant dynasties, and the province's sites — Buddhist cave temples, perfectly preserved Ming-Qing merchant towns, ancient temples in continuous use for a thousand years — represent some of the country's densest concentration of pre-modern architecture.

The Jinci Temple, 25 kilometres southwest of the city, is the most significant site within day-trip distance: a complex of halls, pavilions, and gardens assembled over 1,500 years beside a natural spring. The oldest surviving structure is the Sacred Mother Hall (Shengmu Dian), a Song-dynasty timber building from around 1023 CE, considered one of the finest surviving examples of Song architecture in China. Forty-three painted clay figurines of the sacred mother and her attendants in the hall are from the same period. The spring that feeds the surrounding fishponds has flowed continuously for at least 2,700 years.

The Shanxi Museum in the city centre is one of the better provincial museums for ancient artefacts — strong collections of bronzes, stone carvings, and material from the Northern Wei and Tang dynasties that were culturally significant in this region.

The regional circuit extends in two directions from Taiyuan. South (90 minutes by high-speed rail) is Pingyao, a Ming-Qing era walled merchant city preserved well enough to be UNESCO World Heritage: city walls, Qing-era bank buildings (Shanxi was the financial centre of imperial China, where the proto-banking Piaohao network originated), courtyard residences, and a functioning street life within the walls. The Wang Family Compound (Wangjiayuan), further south, is the best-surviving example of a Shanxi merchant family's fortified compound, with 123 courtyards and 1,118 rooms.

North (three hours by fast train) is Datong, where the Yungang Grottoes — 252 cave shrines carved from the 460s CE, filled with 51,000 Buddhist figures — are UNESCO World Heritage. The nearby Hanging Temple (Xuankong Si) is cantilevered into a cliff face and has been in use since the Northern Wei dynasty.

Shanxi's culinary signature is vinegar — specifically the dark, mellow aged vinegar produced around Qingxu county, which has been made here for over 3,000 years. The local cuisine uses it heavily in cold dishes, noodle sauces, and dipping preparations. Shanxi noodle-making tradition is extraordinarily varied: knife-scraped noodles (dao xiao mian), pulled cat's-ear noodles (mao'er duo), scissor-cut noodles, and many other forms reflect the wheat culture of this northern region.