Sight Overview

Taiyuan is a city with over two thousand years of history and, despite modern changes that have vastly altered the look (and smell) of the city, there still remain a few sights, from Buddhist temples to traditional northern Chinese architecture that could interest those who find themselves here.

The center of the city is probably the large May First Square (Wuyi guangchang), at the eastern end of Yingze dajie and to the west of the railway station. The nearest sight from here is the second section of the Provincial Museum that can be found in the old Chungyang Palace, just to the northwest of the square. This holds some interesting ancient artifacts, including some nice bronze work and ceramics. Almost due east of here, past the square, lies the first section of the museum, that used to be the old Confucius Temple, and that is now most interesting for the architecture of its halls. About 200 meters north of the Confucius Temple Museum lies the ancient Chongshan Temple, an active place of worship that has numerous sutras and some well maintained halls contained within its walls. This temple was built in commemoration of the death of the Ming Dynasty’s first empress.

In the south of the city are a few sights that may be worth visiting. There is a park, Yingze Park, to the southwest of May First Square, that is large, although mostly lake. The final sight, the Twin Pagoda Temple, is to the southeast and is the symbol of the city. These two 13 storey pagodas, standing side by side, tower to a height of around 50 meters, giving a great view of the city from their top stories.

It is not the city sights, however, that are likely to draw travelers to Taiyuan. If you wish to spend more than a passing moment in the city, then the little town of Pingyao, the setting for the film “Raise the Red Lantern”, comes highly recommended. The ancient architecture that can be found within the old town walls is some of the best in the whole of China. Also of interest out of the city are two temples, the nearer Jinci Temple, that houses a large mixture of dynastic buildings, and the Shuanglin Temple, a mostly Ming Dynasty Buddhist complex, 7km to the southwest of Pingyuan.

Sight Index
Gold Medals or silver Medals indicate Sights recommended by Lonelychina.