Taiyuan Loess Civilization: A River Runs Through It

The ancient pedigree of Taiyuan can be detected in its folklore. The local people are honest and hospitable, and inventive at expressing their feelings and emotions through folk songs and dances. The Songs of Shanxi (Chang Xiang Shanxi), a singing and dancing extravaganza created for tourists, represents the history of Shanxi using more than 10 folk music genres native to the province.

The Shanxi diet has strong local characteristics. The geographical and climatic conditions of the province are congenial for wheat production, so the locals have developed an appetite for the grain. Though the Jin cuisine is not seen among the country's famous schools of culinary art, Taiyuan stands out where a wheat flour-based diet is concerned. Wheat flour can be made into hundreds of dishes that one can enjoy for months without repetition of a dish.

The vinegar products of Taiyuan enjoy an unchallenged reputation across China. The Meiheju workshop is a living museum where vinegar is produced with the same methods as 500 years ago. Looking at the introduction to its "steaming, fermenting, smoking, sprinkling and sunning" processes, one can understand why Taiyuan vinegar has digestive and germicidal effects and is helpful for weight control and the protection of the skin. The production technique has been listed a national intangible cultural heritage. The patent preparation for the delicious braised pork of Liuweizhai (Six Tastes Shop), a 100-year-old food caterer, has also been put under national protection as an intangible cultural heritage.

Accommodation and Transportation

The rich heritage of its dynastic past has drawn many tourists to Taiyuan. As a major city within easy reach of the World Cultural Heritage sites of the Yungang Grottoes, Pingyao Old Town, the Wutai Mountains, and the Hukou Waterfalls of the Yellow River, Taiyuan has also become a pivot of provincial tours.

The city has more than 200 travel agencies of advanced service capacity and quality to handle international or domestic tours. In recent years they have developed six choice tours for tourists, concentrating respectively on the Jinyang culture, religions, ancient towns and villages, special local industries, ecological sightseeing, and revolutionary sites.

Taiyuan has about 100 star-rated tourist hotels, ranging from economical inns to luxury accommodations. If you want to experience the rural life of the Loess Plateau, there are plentiful homestays on offer for you to choose from.

As an ancient strategic point, Taiyuan was a hub of traffic in the old times. With the rapid development of modern transportation, the city has played an increasingly stronger role as a convergence and distribution center for the tourism industry, with expressways, highways and railways connecting it to various parts of the country and the world. The bullet train from Beijing to Taiyuan makes it possible for a Beijingner to visit the Jin Temple in less than three hours. The Taiyuan International Airport operates more than 50 domestic and international air routes for visitors traveling from points farther away.

Taiyuan has many sides to delight – ancient and modern, Chinese and Western, rustically simple and yet commercially savvy. This range of choice defines the city and the people, and all are worth a journey of discovery.