Capital of Shanxi — Gateway to the Yungang Grottoes — where 51,000 Buddhist sculptures carved into sandstone cliffs between 460 and 525 CE remain perfectly preserved, the Jinci Temple complex is the oldest surviving wooden architecture in China, and the Shanxi aged vinegar (producing black vinegar for 3,000 years) flavours the local braised noodles
Taiyuan (太原) is the capital of Shanxi Province — the province in north-central China most associated with coal (China's largest coal-producing province), ancient temples, and vinegar. Shanxi sits in a mountain-rimmed basin where civilisation has been continuous since the Neolithic: the Fen River valley was one of the cradles of Chinese agriculture, and the province contains more ancient wooden structures than any other in China. The Yungang Grottoes (云冈石窟), 16 km west of Datong (250 km north of Taiyuan), are among the world's greatest Buddhist cave art complexes — 252 caves containing 51,000…
Taiyuan's Fen River basin was the centre of the Jin State during the Spring and Autumn Period (771–476 BCE) — one of the most powerful Zhou-era states, whose dissolution into three successor states (Han, Wei, Zhao, the 'Partition of Jin') marked the beginning of the Warring States Period. The Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534 CE) — a non-Han Tuoba Xianbei dynasty — made nearby Datong its first capital and commissioned the Yungang Grottoes as an act of Buddhist devotion and political legitimation before moving the capital south to Luoyang. The Tang Dynasty founders (Li Yuan, the Gaozu Emperor, and…