SHAN XI

Shanxi
theleading coal producing province

Huangshan Mountain is one of the most popular holiday destinations in China. It was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990. The name of the mountain, Huangshan literally means "the Yellow Mountain". It was called "Yishan Mountain" by locals in ancient times. It was in the seventh century that an emperor of the Tang Dyansty (618-907) renamed the mountain in memory of the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of Chinese. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor once stayed in the mountain for making elixir. Huangshan Scenic Area is notable for its natural beauty which features as the lofty granite cliffs, and the strange shape of pine trees. The mountain is also one of the most ideal places for visitors to enjoy the spectacular view of some phenomena, such as the sea of clouds, sunrise and sunset.

Xu Xiake (1587-1641), a celebrated geographer and travel writer of the Ming Dynasty, praises Huangshan Mountain in his book. It goes that none of mountains under heaven would interest you after you visited China's Top Five Mountains; and none of China's Top Five Mountains can rival Huangshan Mountain, when it comes to the scenery. Nearly each Chinese knows this sentence. So Mt Huangshan is one of the must-visit sites in Chinese people's heart as well as Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Many of Chinese landscape painters were inspired by the gorgeous view of Huangshan Mountain. Therefore, if you come to visit Mt Huangshan, you would find the artwork you've seen comes to life on Mount Huangshan. Director James Cameron cited Huangshan as one of his influences in designing the fictional world of his 2009 film Avatar.

The highlight for visiting Mt Huangshan are four natural wonders, they are spectacular stones, odd-shaped pines, hot springs and the sea of clouds. Normally, we see the stones, pines and probably the sea of clouds on top of the mountain. But if you want to experience the hot spring, it is only available at the foot of the mountain. So you need to plan one more night stay inside the hot spring area.

Celestial Capital Peak (1,800m/5,900ft), Lotus Peak (1,873m/6,145ft), and Bright Top (1,841m/6,040ft) are the three tallest peaks of Mt Huangshan. Celestial Capital Peak and Lotus Peak are closed for maintenance by turns for each 5 years. Now Celestial Capital Peak is closed till reopen in 2024. Bright Top is one of the nice places for appreciating sunrise and the sea of clouds.

Why Shanxi with such lots of cultural relics?
With the great wall bordering the north, the Gobi desert tothe Northwest and its distinctive geography, Shanxi occupied a strategicposition for nearly a thousand year. Shanxi is also one of the birthplacesof China civilization. Now Shanxi is theleading coal producing province in China, so you might feel the air here is notas fresh as other provinces. But the local government spent great effort toimprove the environment and air quality in recent years. So we still stronglyrecommend Shanxi to you to know more and deeply about Chinese culture.
Shanxi Province could bedivided into 3 parts. North, Middle and South. North Shanxi is the most famoustourist part at present which famous for its magnificent Buddhist culture andarchitecture featuring Yungang Grottoes, Hanging Temple, Huayan Temple andYingxian Wooden Pagoda, middle of Shanxi is famous for its merchant culture .The Culture of Shanxi Merchants is one of the commercialcultural systems in Chinese history, the representative scenic. sites are ChangFamily Courtyard and Pingyao Ancient Town. The South Shanxi is South Shanxi iswell known for its traditional Chinese ancestral roots culture and there arealso several well-worth sites like Feihong Tower in Guangsheng Temple, HongdongCounty, and the delicate fresco in Yongle Palace, Yuncheng City.
Yungang Grottoes
Huayan Temple
Hanging Temple
Nowit’s quite convenient to travel Shanxi Province, we newly opened the bullettrain between Beijing and Datong (2 hours and 20 mins duration), Datong toTaiyuan, Datong to Pingyao, Pingyao to Yuncheng and Yuncheng to Xian, all connectedwith bullet trains. But as we do not have local English speaking guide in eachplace, most of them from capital city Taiyuan, so we suggest you to use privatecar transfer when you traveling Shanxi Province but not taking bullet train.
Suggestionsfor tailor-made your Shanxi Tour

OurTravel Consultant Janet Chan spent 8 days to explore Shanxi Province inAug,2019. Traveling from north to south part and done the inspection to somenot so famous sites but found actually Shanxi Province is a land of treasures.Bellowing are our recommended trips after on-the-spot inspection.

Shanxi Travel Tips:
Thebellowing tips might helpful for you to plan your Guizhou Trip
Best time for traveling
The Temperature
Food in Shanxi
Hotel & Restaurants
Picture Taking in nearly all thecultural relics
Best time for traveling

As the main attractions in Shanxi Province aremostly cultural relics, so anytime in the year is ok for traveling. But ShanxiProvince locate in the northern part of China, so since from the end of Nov,the temperature would go down till the end of Feb. And the weather starts toget warm after the mid of March. Jul and Aug are hottest summer time, also thepeak traveling season due to the student summer vacation, but there are not toomany tourists in the culture relics all in all as the scenic spots in ShanxiProvince is not so famous in Chinese except Yungang Grottoes and HangingTemple.

Hukou Waterfall is one of the importantnatural scenic spot in Shanxi Province which is good time for traveling only inMay to Oct. But as Jul and Aug are raining season, the scenic spot mighttentatively close to tourists if water volume is too large. And tourists couldappreciate the blossom peach flower in Apr and May.

由线图：https://echarts.apache.org/examples/zh/index.html#chart-type-bar

The Temperature

Shanxi Province has a cold and dryclimate which is typical climate in northern China. The hottest two monthsare Jul and Aug, the highest temperature is around 30-33℃ (86-91℉) except some extremely hot dayswhich is unusually happened. The southern part (Linfen, Yuncheng) are hotterthan middle and northern part.

Food in Shanxi

Shanxi Cuisine features a wide varietyof wheaten food,hence the name the “land of wheaten food.” A saying goes like this: “Shanxiproduces a hundred kinds of wheaten food, and each kind offers a hundredtastes.”So you would definitely have chance to try wheaten food cook indifferent ways when you travel in Shanxi.

Hotel & Restaurants

Nicehotels are available in Taiyuan (Capital City), Datong and Pingyao Ancient Townas these are 3 famous tourist places in Shanxi Province. Linfen and Yunchengwithout many fancy options of hotels, but you also can find moderate Chinesestandard comfortable hotels.

Picture Taking in nearly all thecultural relics

PictureTaking is forbidden in most of the heritage sites in Shanxi Province because ofbellowing reasons:

  • Culturalrelic protection specially flash is forbidden
  • Religion.As taking picture for the gods in the temple or grottoes or architecture is akind of disrespect.
  • Copyright

So please bring your camera but keep most ofthe impression in the mind.