Hukou Waterfall, Yan'an

Being in China, besides the hot sightseeing cities, the tourist market in Shanxi province is very prosperous, which contains of not only the most famous and important grotto art and holy mountain of Buddhism, but also the ancient family compound architecture and the hometown for several great persons in history, such as famous general Guan Yu in Three Kingdoms period and the emperor Yao. Travel here in your spare time and you will never regret for this great decision.

Take train K603 1707/0841 + (the ticket charge is CNY239.00 net for hard sleeper and CNY365.00 for soft sleeper) from Beijing west railway station to Yuncheng City and you will arrive at Yuncheng City in the next day's morning. Upon arrival, we suggest you buy train tickets directly for next day's travel to Linfen City to make good preparation (N258 0802/0948, the ticket charge is CNY22.00 and the soft seat is CNY34.00). Then go to the bus station to Ruicheng City, the transfer may need about 2 hours at the cost of CNY18.00 net. Yongle Palace is the most famous site in Ruicheng for the murals within, it is said that the murals inside Yongle Palace is the representative works of Yuan Dynasty, and also it is the most magnificent and grand murals of ancient China, it also has a reputation of “the Crown of Oriental Art”. You can take taxi from Ruicheng City bus station and the taxi fee is no more than CNY5.00. Take bus from Ruicheng bus City (the buses run from Ruicheng City to  Yuncheng City) and get off at XieZhou County. You will arrive at the highroad side and need to walk to the Guandi Temple on foot for about 1500 meters. This is a temple to enshrining and worshiping the famous General Guan Yu. On Oct 18 every year, the domestic and abroad travelers gather here to celebrate the Guan Gong Cultural Festival. You may take bus No. 11 to Yuncheng railway station for your overnight stay, the transfer may need about 50 minutes and the ticket charge is CNY2.50.

In the second day's morning, take train N258 0802/0948 to Linfen City. Take the public bus or taxi to visit the Yao Temple and the Fist Door of China – Hua Men (Hua Door). Then take bus No. 16 to Linfen bus station to connect a microbus to visit the Big Scholartree Sport Area, which is the hometown of many domestic and foreign citizen of Chinese origin. Then take a taxi about CNY4.00 to visit the SuSan Chokey, which is a well-preserved chokey of Ming Dynasty. Stay overnight at Linfen City.

Wang Family Compound in Lingshi, Shanxi Province

Get up early in the third day's morning, please prepare your warm clothes before visiting the Hukou Waterfalls of Yellow River. The transportation to Hukou is not very convenient; only 6 long-distance buses are available from Linfen to Hukou. The buses run from Linfen to Yanan City of Shaanxi province, but you can get off at the Hukou Bridge. The earliest available bus starts at about 06:00 am, and the transfer may need 5 hours, we suggest you catch this one to leave more time for a whole day's sightseeing. It still has 3km from the Hukou bridge to Hukou Waterfalls spot area, but many vehicle here can take you to the waterfall at about CNY2-5.00. If you can not catch the long-distance bus from Linfen to Yanan, you may take bus from Linfen bus station to Jixian County at the cost of CNY16-20.00, the transfer may take 3.5 hours, once you are in Jixian County, to save your time, we suggest you charter a taxi or a microbus to the spot area directly, the round trip may cost you about 80-120.00 net, you need to bargain with the driver. After visiting, you can back to Linfen in the same way.

Kind notice: the buses or taxi may stir up a cloud of dust when drive by, we suggest you take a gauze kerchief or a respirator with you.

Have a good rest in the fourth day's morning, or, you may visit other sites in Linfen. Take train 4626 1207/1358 (the ticket charge is CNY15.00 for hard seat and CNY26.00 for soft seat) to Lingshi, where the famous Wang Family compound locates. The buses No. 1 are available every 30 minutes from Lingshi to Wang Family compound, taxi is also available. This site is called “the first house in China” and it is even larger than famous Qiao Family compound. If you visit it very carefully, 4-5 is needed. The admission is CNY66.00 per person.

In the fifth day's morning, take bus No. 11 to Jie Xiu, then connect the bus here to Shuanglin Temple at the cost of CNY5.00, the bus will stop at the entrance of the road, and 15 -20 minutes walk is needed to visit the temple. Once finishing the visiting, you may charter a taxi to the Ping Yao Ancient street, CNY15-20.00 is fine for the driver to transfer you to the Pingyao City directly. In Pingyao, there are many hotels or even can call them hostels, are all in great demand, especially in travel high season. We suggest you book the room in advance for two nights, for you need another day here to visit other sites.

The sixth day will be a rather busy day, take taxi to Pingyao railway station and then connect the train or bus to Taiyuan city, here buses are suggest since the time schedule of train is not very good and once you are Taiyuan bus station, you can connect bus to Mt. Wutai directly at Taiyuan east bus station, this is more convenient. The transfer may need 4-5 hours and the ticket charge is CNY60.00. Stay overnight at a small county at the foot of the mountain, named Tai Huai County. If you still have time, you may wander around the county, which is really small and you can stroll around on food. Or, you can visit one site of Mt. Wutai, the Dai Luo Peak with 1080 steps, if you are not good at walk, cable car is also available.

Temples on Mt. Wutai, Shanxi Province

The seventh day is a full day to visit this holy land of Buddhism. Mt. Wutai is the top one among the other three famous Buddhism Mountains in China. It is very hard to figure out how many temples are located in Mt. Wutai, for many of them are under construction and the date is keeping changing all the time, for a rough count, at least 300 temples are distributing in Mt. Wutai. For clients who visit here, only visit the famous and important ones are fine. The entrance fee of Mt. Wutai is about CNY95.00 in travel high season, and different temples will also collect small amount of admission fee. Most of the temples are at walk distance with Tai Huai County, but to save time, we suggest you charter a taxi to travel around. Generally speaking, one day can cove Xiantong Temple, Tayuan Temple, Luohou Temple and the Bodhisattva Peak. You also can visit other temples if you time is enough.

The persons who are interested in Buddhism always suggest visit the Mt. Wutai for at least three days. If you time is flexible and you can stay for one or two more days. But if you just want to experience the atmosphere of this holy land of Buddhism, one and a half day will be fine.

From Tai Huai County, there are long-distance buses available to Taiyuan City all year round and to Heshan in travel high season. Train is also available from Mt. Wutai to Beijing, it is train 6096 1233/2204.