A heavily industrialized city, Taiyuan lies on the banks of the Fen River at the heart of Shanxi and makes a convenient base for trips to Pingyao and Wutai Shan. Between the years 471-221 BC Taiyuan was the capital of the Zhao Kingdom, and became a flourishing center of Buddhism by the 6th century AD. Because of its strategic position, bordering the hostile nomadic tribes to the north, the city underwent heavy fortification during the Tang Dynasty. However, fearing its ambitions, the Sung Dynasty ruler had it torched to the ground. The city was rebuilt a few years later. The Buddhist monastery Chongshan Si is hidden down an alleyway northeast of Wuyi Square. A temple has existed here since the 7th century, although the current building dates from the 14th century. A fire reduced much of the temple to ashes in 1864, but considerable rebuilding has taken place. The Hall of Great Compassion (Dabei Dian) houses the striking Qianshou Guanyin (Thousand-Armed Goddess of Compassion), the central figure in the trinity of statues. The multi-armed and multi-eyed goddess stands over 8 m, her arms fanned out behind her. Also displayed in the temple are sutras (Buddhist scriptures) and scrolls from the Sung, Yuan, and Ming eras. In the east of town, the Twin Pagoda Temple (Shuangta Si) was built on imperial instruction during the late Ming era. Also known as Yongzuo Temple, its 13-story, 50-m high pagodas have come to symbolize Taiyuan. The Shanxi Provincial Museum has two sections - the main part is housed in a Mingera Daoist temple formerly called Chunyang Temple, northwest of Wuyi Square. Within the halls are relics, bronzes, and statuary found in Shanxi. The second section, in the Ming-era buildings of the former Confucius Temple east of Wuyi Square, houses relics of Shanxi’s recent history, and a collection of Buddhist sutras.

Jinci Si

Environs: The bustling Jinci Si, 25 km southwest of town at the base of Xuanwang Shan (Xuanwang Mountain), dates to the Northern Wei, although much of its architecture is from the Song period. The main entrance leads straight to the Ming-era Mirror Terrace, originally used as a theatrical stage. To the west, a canal runs through the temple complex, crossed by a bridge that leads to a terrace supporting four fierce iron statues. Lying beyond is the impressively carved Hall of the Sacred Mother (Shengmu Dian), one of China’s oldest surviving wooden buildings. Inside the hall, a group of ceramic Songera figures waits on a central figure of the Sacred Mother. About 40 km southwest of Taiyuan, the Tianlong Shan Grottoes in the Tianlong Mountains constitute a small, but significant, collection of Buddhist cave art. A total of 21 caves dot the eastern and western sides of the mountain, with worn and damaged statues dating from the Eastern Wei to the Tang dynasties.