Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi Province,
which is located on the eastern part of the Loess Plateau of North China, with Shaaxi Province
to the west and Hebei Province to the east, very close to Beijing and Xian.
Below are our suggested itineraries for your reference based on your travel time inTaiyuan City Shanxi
1.If you have one day free in Taiyuan ,we suggest:
Essential Shanxi: Shanxi airport transfers, visit The
Pingyao Ancient City and The Shuanglin Temple.
Historic Shanxi :
Shanxi airport transfers, Jinci Temple
and Shanxi Museum.
2.If you have two days free in Taiyuan,we suggest:
Shanxi Classic (2 Days): Jinci Temple,
Qiao Courtyard and The Pingyao
Ancient City.
Merchant Culture (2 Days):
Qiao Courtyard, The Pingyao
Ancient City
and Wang Courtyard.
If all the Taiyuan private day tours on this page are not what you are expecting, please contact us to plan a tailor-made Taiyuan day tour. about the quotation ,Pls send us email angelleexin@yahoo.com
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| Pingyao Ancient City |
Pingyao Ancient City
Pingyao Ancient City is 110 kilometers south of Taiyuan, the
capital of Shanxi province and is an outstanding example of a Chinese Han nationality city
during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, retaining all features of such periods. Pingyao Ancient City is the only
ancient city in China completely reserved as it was built hundreds of years
without any modern buildings, but it only consists of the narrow street with
Chinese shops in old style by each side. The city wall is 12 meters tall with
an average width of 5 meters , which is also regarded as the oldest and best
preserved wall in China.
Jinci Temple
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| Jinci Temple |
The Jinci Temle, located 25 kilometers southwest
from downtown Taiyuan, is one of the national key relics. It is a scenic spot
composed of architecture, sculptures and traditional landscapes. It is known for the 43 statues
standing inside and the most famous statues are the 30 clay figures of young
maids-in-waiting painted with colorful costumes and retained perfectly.The
scenery presents an excellent combination of antiquity with natural beauty.
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| Qiao Courtyard |
Qiao
Courtyard
The Qiao Family
Courtyard lies in the beautiful and richly endowed Jinzhong basin of Shanxi.
It is greatly admired as a very special artistic treasure by both common people
and architects. It
is also one of the ten best tourist spots in the Shanxi Province.
The Qiao Family
Courtyard was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-99) in the Qing
Dynasty, and occupied 8,724.8 square meters of land, consisting of 6 large
yards and 20 small yards with 313 houses in total. It was repaired and rebuilt
many times during the reigns of emperors Tongzhi and Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty
and at the beginning of the People’s Republic of China (1911-1949). It was an old
Chinese residential courtyard that thrived for over two centuries. When you
look down at the overall yard above ground, it looks just like "喜喜" (The Chinese characters mean double
happiness）.
Entering into the gate of
the courtyard, first you
will see an 80-meter-long straight stone pavement that divides 6
courtyards into a northern and southern row. There are slope protections
between the pavements and nearby walls. The Qiao family's ancestral temple is
at the end of the western side, which directly faces the gate. There are 4 main
buildings and 6 other structures, such as a gate pavilion and the Geng and Tiao
pavilions. The sidewalks on the roof of every yard are connected to allow for
patrol.
Viewed
from outside, the residency is serious and grand with long yards; viewed from inside, it is
splendid and orderly reflecting the residential style of big families in feudal
society in North China.
The
courtyard's three sides face the street, while the courtyard itself is
completely surrounded by a 10-meter-high sealed water-milled brick wall. Yards
and houses are linked with other yards and houses while the sidewalks above row
upon row of roofs - such as the Xuanshan, Xieshan, Yingshan, Juanpeng, and
Horizon roofs -- link up the battlements.
Yards contain smaller
yards as well as gardens. The doors, windows, eaves, stone stairs, quadrangular
railings, three or five rows in depth and three yards though in a line are all beautiful
shaped. You can see brick carvings everywhere in the yards: backbone carving,
wall carving, and railing carving. All of which are based on figures, allusions, flowers and
plants, birds, beast, chess, and painting and calligraphy. The carving designs
are so exquisite and their workmanship, so fine, fully showing the special
style of residential building in the Qing Dynasty.
In
1990, this ancient mansion gained its fame home and abroad due to the movie
Raise the Red Lantern by the director Zhang Yimou. After the movie finished,
the drama production team left behind several hundred red lanterns. Since then,
these lanterns have been the most important decoration both in the Qiao Family
Grand Courtyard and other Jin Shang courtyards.
The
Qiao Family Grand Courtyard has been admired as a bright pearl of residential
buildings in North China.
In
1986, the Qi County government rebuilt the courtyard into the Qi County Folk
Museum that features art, science, and other things of interest. It contains 42
exhibition rooms displaying a wide range of material covering subject areas
such as years, time, season, food, clothing, shelter and transportation,
wedding and funeral ceremonies, and agriculture trade activities. In total,
approximately 2,000 pieces of exhibits reflect the folktale custom in the Shanxi
Jinzhong area.
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