4 Days Jinzhong (The middle of Shanxi) Trip

Day01 Arrive Taiyuan, the capital city of Shanxi Province, our guide would meet you at the airport or railway station and transfer you to the hotel. Our guide would help you do the check in and the leisure time in Taiyuan is on your own arrangement.

Day02 Our guide would meet you at the lobby of hotel at 08:30am, then drive you to visit Tianlongshan Grottoes which firstly excavated in Beiqi Dynasty (420 - 589). But most of the grottoes were excavated in Tang Dynasty which last over 400 years for the whole project. Then drive you to visit Jinci Temple which is the earliest royal garden in China which is still well-preserved. The history is much longer than the royal gardens in Beijing. And there are several old trees with over 1000 years history, and the whole environment is quite tranquil and peaceful which is not easy to find in China. Then we would drive you 50 mins to Chang Family Compound which has the largest scale among all Shanxi Merchants, and it is also the largest architectural complex in manor style. After that, we drive you to stay at Pingyao Ancient Town. Enjoy leisure time inside Pingyao Town on your own arrangement.

Day03 If you like, our guide would meet you at the lobby of hotel at around 06:15am, getting up early it would give you a chance to see a quiet and peaceful Pingyao Ancient Town as most of the Chinese tourists group would start trip at around 0700am gradually. Except the noisy and commercialized atmosphere in the daytime, Pingyao Ancient Town show her serenity in the early morning. Before all the shops opened, before the loudspeaker start to work for the hordes, you would see a lovely Pingyao Ancient Town, you would have chance to hear the peddler's yo-heave-ho (they might probably sell local breakfasts), old people talking with their neighbor, or just the blooming of the jujube tree, would bring you a quite different feeling in this thousands of years history town. It's also a good time for photography. As today’s trip is not packed, so we can back to hotel to take a rest for around 2 hours including breakfast's time. Then we depart from hotel at around 10am, drive to visit Zhenguo Temple firstly, you would find that's an undiscovered gem which forgotten by local people and tourists, here you can appreciate the old Chinese architecture and amazing painted sculptures & frescos with above 1,000 years history! Then we drive you to visit Shuanglin Temple. When Pingyao Ancient Town applied to be UNESCO in 1997, the government applied through one town  -- Pingyao Ancient Town and Two Temples – Zhenguo Temple and Shuanglin Temple to pass the application, so these 2 temples are both you should not miss. And Shuanglin Temple with 1,400 years history which a bit longer than Zhenguo Temple and famous for its painted sculptures, the more stunning feature of Zhenguo Temple is the architecture. After lunch, we would drive you to visit Liangcun Village, a sinking village which has many famous merchants hundred years ago, their houses is still inside the village but the host has changed into poor people. Now Liangcun Village is one of the poor villages near Pingyao Ancient Town. By visiting this village, you can see the rise and decline of the life. Then we would drive you back to hotel for take a rest, re-start to go out and visit Rishengchang Former Bank inside Pingyao Ancient Town. Our guide would give you introduction about the former bank so that you would have idea that how Pingyao became so influential and wealthy from the trade and banking. Then we would drive you back to hotel, enjoy the dinner and leisure time on your own.

Day04 Transfer to the railway station to take bullet train to next stop. Pingyao Ancient Town has bullet train to Xian and Beijing.  These two big cities help you to make the connection easier. 

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