Yuncheng lies at the far southwestern corner of Shanxi, where the province narrows to a wedge between Henan and Shaanxi. It is one of the oldest continuously settled places in China — the flat plains around the Yellow River bend here were the heartland of several legendary early dynasties, and the city makes much of its association with the semi-mythical Emperor Shun and General Guan Yu, the deified warrior of the Three Kingdoms whose birthplace is nearby. Most visitors come for two things: the Yongle Palace and the Salt Lake.
The Yongle Palace is a Daoist temple complex built during the Yuan dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries. The temple was originally located in the small town of Yongle but was disassembled stone by stone and rebuilt at its present site in the 1950s to make way for a reservoir — one of the more remarkable feats of Chinese heritage preservation. Inside the three main halls are some of the most extensive and best-preserved Yuan-dynasty murals in existence, covering the walls and ceilings with thousands of square metres of painted Daoist deities, celestial processions, and narrative scenes executed in a fluid, confident style that predates the more rigid imperial painting conventions of the Ming. Photography is restricted but unavoidable.
The Yuncheng Salt Lake — Hedong Salt Pond — is one of the oldest continuously exploited saltworks in the world, with a production history of over 4,600 years. In summer the algae and salt-tolerant microbes turn the water vivid shades of red, pink, and green, producing a landscape that is more Dead Sea than Yellow River plain. The lake drove much of northern China's pre-modern economy and was the source of the state revenue that several dynasties fought over. The Guandi Temple at Jiezhou, dedicated to Guan Yu, is the grandest of hundreds of temples to the same deity across China, an enormous Ming and Qing complex that still draws pilgrims year-round.