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China Elevator Stories
Taiyuan: Where Ancient Culture Meets Contemporary Urban Life (China Travel)
Taiyuan offers something for those interested in contemporary Chinese cities as well as ancient history.
13/05/2026
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
As a former capital of several dynasties, including the Later Tang (923–936), Later Han (947–951), Northern Han (951–979), and Later Jin (1616–1636), Taiyuan offers something for history fans, as well as a wealth of Chinese culture in the form of temples, pagodas, and the nearby Mengshan Giant Buddha, which can be easily reached by cab from the city center.
There are a few ancient sights in the city, and Taiyuan also features China’s only coal museum, which I visited to do a little research for a book I am currently writing. It isn’t a large museum, but it was interesting to visit, as it features a coal tunnel where one can take a train underground and experience what it is like to be in a coal mine.
I also came across a church on the way from the closest subway stop to my hotel, which was located right across the street from the subway stop.
The church is called the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and was built almost four centuries ago, in 1635. The current cathedral is a rebuilt version of the former building, as it was destroyed twice.
China has cleaned up large parts of the country’s air in recent years, and the blue skies one can experience where there used to be smog and extremely polluted cities are amazing, particularly in cities with populations of a few million. Even large provincial capitals are now largely clean, and traveling across the country is such a joy.
In the past, there were definitely a few places I never intended to visit due to the bad stories I had heard about their air. I also took a train from Northeast China to Shanghai over a decade ago, and although the air was still somewhat cleaner in the Northeast, once we crossed into Northern China, it remained so polluted that there wasn’t much to see until we reached Shanghai a few hours later (I was taking a bullet train), including in the countryside.
Have you ever visited Taiyuan?