Mian Mountain: Cliffs, Cables and the Path Up
A Taoist mountain in Jiexiu reached by cliff paths, tied to the story of Jie Zhitui, and repaired on private money since 1995 before its scenic area opened in 2000.
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Jinzhong
9 articles
The Chang Family Compound and the School Inside It
The Chang family built a walled town of houses in their own village over two centuries; only the restored part, about 120,000 square metres, can be walked today.
The Wang Compound on a Stone Slope
One of several Chinese compounds called the Wang Family Compound, the Lingshi house in Jinzhong is a nationally protected merchant residence, and its name needs care.
Reading the Qiao Family Compound by Its Courtyards
The Qiao compound at Qiaojia Bao village shows what a merchant's money bought: 313 rooms in six large courtyards, begun in 1756, and a 5A rating withdrawn in 2019.
The Painted Figures of Shuanglin Temple
Shuanglin Temple holds the painted clay figures that made it famous: 2,052 are reported, 1,650 survive, and many of the losses were made in the Cultural Revolution.
Rishengchang: An Early Chinese Bank in Pingyao
The first piaohao in China worked from a shopfront in Pingyao, moving money without moving silver, and ran a network that made central Shanxi the financial centre of the Qing state.
Inside the Walled Streets of Pingyao
The walled town of Pingyao on the Fen River: a plan that can still be read from the walls, twenty nationally protected sites inside it, and the 1997 inscription that covers the town and two outer temples.
Zhangbi: A Village Fortified for the Ground Beneath
A walled village in Jiexiu with three levels of tunnels under a single dressed-stone street, protected as a national site since 2006 and still explained by local account.
A Market Town: Yuci Old City
Yuci Old City is a reconstruction rather than a survival: the old county town was demolished around 2000 and replaced by a pseudo-antique street district.