[Taiyuan Travel Guide] The Ultimate 2-Day, 1-Night Itinerary for Independent Travelers

You can see bronze artifacts in the Shanxi Museum and drill underground mines in the Coal Museum, which condenses the essence of Shanxi's thousand-year-old above-ground and underground civilization.
Explore the Song Dynasty colored sculptures and thousand-year-old ancient buildings in Jin Temple, stroll through the streets of the ancient county town and eat leaked fish, and unlock the history and fireworks in two days.

Taiyuan Zoo is located in the north of Taiyuan city and is a very suitable place to bring children to visit. The zoo is full of lush trees and dotted with a large number of potted flowers. In Taiyuan Zoo, you can see precious domestic animals such as golden monkeys, Siberian tigers, red-crowned cranes, as well as precious exotic animals such as white rhinos, giraffes, baboons, and zebras. In Taiyuan Zoo, there are performances by various animals, including sea lion shows, elephant shows, and circus shows.

Address: No. 2 Dongshan Road, Xinghualing District, Taiyuan City

Business hours: 08:00-17:30 in summer, 08:00-17:00 in winter

The Shanxi Museum is located on Binhe West Road, Taiyuan City. Here you can appreciate the essence of Shanxi Province’s cultural relics, such as the Houma Alliance Book from the Spring and Autumn Period, wood board lacquer paintings from the Northern Wei Dynasty, and white marble coffins from the Sui Dynasty, all of which are collections of the Shanxi Museum. The exhibits in the Shanxi Museum cover a wide range of time, from the remains of ancient humans in ancient times to the history of Shanxi merchants in the Ming and Qing dynasties. You can learn about it all here.

Address: No. 13, North Section of Binhe West Road, Wanbolin District, Taiyuan City

Business hours: Open from 09:00 to 17:00 tomorrow (admission ends at 16:00)

China Coal Museum is located on the west bank of Fenhe Park in Taiyuan City. How is coal, which is closely related to our daily lives, produced and how is it dug out from the pitch-black underground? These questions can be answered at the China Coal Museum. The special feature of the museum is the "Coal Amusement Palace". The "Coal Amusement Palace" is an underground simulated mine that uses a large number of physical prototypes or 1:1 scale replicas. You can put on miner's clothes and a miner's hat, take the elevator to the underground, walk through the simulated underground coal mining tunnels, and feel the hardships and dangers of the daily work of coal miners.

Address: No. 2, Yingze West Street, Wanbolin District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

Business hours: Open from 09:00 to 17:00 tomorrow (no admission at 17:00)

The Jin Temple Museum is located on the bank of the Jin River at the foot of Xuanweng Mountain in Taiyuan. It is an ancestral temple of the Jin State built to commemorate Tang Shuyu, the founding prince of the Jin State. The "three treasures" of Jin Temple, including the Offering Hall, Fish Pond Flying Bridge, and Holy Mother Hall, and the "three wonders" of Jin Temple, including Zhou Cypress, Nanlao Spring, and painted clay sculptures, are a major feature of this place. There is also the Shifang Fengsheng Zen Temple in the south, which is said to have been the villa of the Tang Dynasty general Yuchi Gong.

Address: Jinci Park, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

Business hours: Open from 08:30-18:00 tomorrow (ticket sales stop at 17:30; admission stops at 17:30)

The ancient county town of Taiyuan is located in Jinyuan District, covering an area of ​​about 0.8 square kilometers. There are many historical architectural remains in the city, with a clear cross street layout and perfect street texture. It follows the ancient architectural layout of "the city of phoenix" of the ancient city of Jinyang, just like a phoenix with its head to the north and its tail to the south. It has been known as the "Phoenix City" since ancient times and is the continuation of the 2,500-year-old cultural heritage of the ancient city of Jinyang. There are 79 existing cultural relics buildings in the city, including 49 historical buildings under protection by the Taiyuan Municipal Government. Among them, the Confucian Temple is listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Address: No. 19, Fengcheng East Street, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

Business hours: Open from 10:00 to 21:00 tomorrow (ticket sales stop at 20:00; admission stops at 20:30)