Pingyao

Yunjincheng Mansion

Restaurant of Yunjincheng Mansion, a 300-year-old Qiao family courtyard house at No. 56 West Street inside the Pingyao walls, run as a hotel-restaurant since 2005. Serves the private dishes of Jin merchant families in Ming and Qing style courtyards with north and south banquet halls.

Restaurant of Yunjincheng Mansion, a ~300-year-old courtyard house at 56 West Street. Pingyao wantuo, aged Pingyao beef, oat-flour kaolaolao. Classic Shanxi banquet setting.

Hongwuji Restaurant

Large Shanxi restaurant at 84 South Avenue, spread across six shopfronts. Order the beef copper hotpot, vinegar-braised beef, oat-flour kaolaolao and chilled millet cake. Busy late into the night.

Beef copper hotpot and Pingyao beef at 84 South Avenue, Pingyao Ancient City.

Shuanglin Temple

Buddhist temple founded in 571 under the Northern Qi, nicknamed the museum of coloured sculptures for its more than 2,000 painted clay figures, mostly Song to Qing; the surviving halls are Ming and Qing. Inscribed in 1997 as part of the Ancient City of Pingyao World Heritage Site.

About 6 km southwest of the walled town, so take a taxi or hired car. Not on the Ancient City through-ticket - buy it separately. Zhenguo Temple is in the opposite direction (about 18 km apart), so doing both means a half-day car loop.

Zhenguo Temple

Its Wanfo Hall, built in 963, is one of China's oldest wooden buildings and the only surviving building from the Northern Han dynasty, and holds rare 10th-century Buddhist sculpture. Inscribed in 1997 with Pingyao and Shuanglin Temple as the Ancient City of Pingyao World Heritage Site.

About 12 km northeast of the walled town in Haodong village; taxi or hired car only. Separate ticket from the Ancient City through-ticket, sold real-name so bring a passport. Quieter and smaller than Shuanglin - go for the 10th-century hall itself.

Tianyuankui Restaurant

Old-brand Shanxi restaurant on South Avenue with a big Ming-Qing style dining room. Order Pingyao beef, vinegar-braised beef, wantuo and long dragon eggplant.

Dongji Stir-fried Wantuo

Wantuo shop with an open kitchen. Order chao wantuo, the buckwheat jelly stir-fried with beef or sausage, plus peach blossom noodles and Pingyao liangfen.

Lao Zhao's Shanxi Copper Hot Pot

Charcoal-fired Shanxi copper hotpot on South Avenue, simmered in a stock you can drink. Also does grilled meat. The fallback if Hongwuji has a queue.

Wutai Qiao / Pingyao city walls at night

The walls themselves count as 'frozen-decay' - walk them at dusk.

Taiyuan Iron & Steel ('TISCO') area

Massive Mao-era steelworks; you transit through Taiyuan to/from Pingyao.

Yan'an (延安)

CCP wartime base from September 1937. Most inhabitants lived in yaodong cave dwellings carved into Loess Plateau hillsides after Japanese bombing destroyed nearly all surface buildings except a pagoda.

The original red base. Full pilgrim-circuit including yaodong cave houses Mao lived in. Major detour from Pingyao (~5h).

East Taihang Glasswalk

Another glass cliff walk.

Abandoned Medical University

Yan'an. Decaying campus, urbex bait.

Shijiazhuang - North China Military Museum + Mao statue

Stop on the Beijing↔Pingyao corridor; concrete-and-marble shrine, giant Mao.