Taiyuan, the capital city of Shanxi Province, is a city of 2.8 million people in northern China, located in about 550 km southwest of Beijing. The city's industrial muscle – especially in coal and metallurgy – defines it in the minds of most modern Chinese, and there is no doubt that Taiyuan's future will be driven by its burgeoning industrial economy. But Shanxi is steeped in history, as it borders the nomad lands of the north and lies on the route that brought Buddhism to China. All of this makes Taiyuan well worth a visit.

The superb new Shanxi Provincial Museum is one of the city's main attractions, and the ancient Buddhist sculptures of the Tianlongshan Grottoes are another. Expect the climate of the north when you visit: summers are warm and rather humid, and winters, with daytime highs around freezing point, are bone-dry.

The cuisine, too, is typical of the northern Chinese plains, with wheat and mutton the main staples: a cheap meal in a Taiyuan restaurant will be some variation on the noodles and sheep-meat theme that plays all the through the far north. If you want to rock on in a different bar every night, you should head east for Beijing, but Taiyuan has its share of quiet watering-holes if you're the contemplative type.