Taiyuan is the provincial capital of Shanxi and the inevitable gateway into it — high-speed trains from Beijing reach here in under three hours, and from here the province fans out in all directions. The city has been inhabited for over 2,500 years and served as a capital or stronghold for several dynasties; the Tang founders assembled their armies here before marching south to seize the empire. None of that history is easy to see in the modern city, which is heavily industrialised and caked in the coal dust that funds Shanxi's economy, but a day or two spent here rewards the patient traveller.
The unmissable sight is Jinci Temple, 25 km southwest of the city centre at the foot of Xuanweng Mountain, where springs have drawn worshippers for three thousand years. The complex accumulated buildings across more than a millennium and contains over a hundred structures, sculptures, and bridges — the centrepiece is the Song-dynasty Hall of the Holy Mother, whose eight pillars are wrapped in carved wooden dragons and whose interior is lined with 42 clay attendant figures so lifelike they seem to be waiting for instructions. A 3,000-year-old cypress stands in the garden. Also worth the trip: Tianlongshan Grottoes, a Buddhist cave complex west of the city with carvings spanning the Northern Qi to the Tang, and the Longshan Grottoes, the only surviving Taoist grotto site in China, cut into the hillside during the Yuan dynasty.
In the city itself, the Shanxi Museum is one of China's finest provincial museums — its Bronze Age collection, drawn from the hundreds of tombs excavated across Shanxi, is extraordinary. The Twin Pagodas of Yongzuo Temple have been the city's emblem since the Ming dynasty. Taiyuan is best used as a base rather than a destination in itself: stay one night, see Jinci the following morning, and move on to Pingyao or Wutai Shan in the afternoon.