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Taiyuan

Also known as Tai-yuan-fu, Bing, Tai-yuan, T'ai-yuan-fu, T'ai-yuan, Taiyuan Shi, T'ai-yuan Shih, Tai-yuan Shih

Taiyuan (Taiyuan Jin: ) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province, containing an industrial base focusing on energy and heavy chemicals. Throughout its long history, Taiyuan was the capital or provisional capital of many dynasties in China, hence the name ().

OverviewAI-generated

Taiyuan, officially known as 太原市, is a prefecture-level city and big city located in Shanxi, China. It serves as the capital of Shanxi and has at various times been the capital of Jin, Northern Han, and the Later Jin dynasty. The city contains the administrative districts of Xiaodian, Yingze, Xinghualing, and Jiancaoping. Its elevation is approximately 788 to 800 meters above sea level, and it operates in the UTC+08:00 time zone.

With a population of 5,304,061, Taiyuan is twinned with Chemnitz, Launceston, Himeji, and Newcastle upon Tyne. The city’s postal code is 030000, and its local dialing code is 351. It is distinct from Taiwan and Thái Nguyên.

Synthesized by Vinony from 53 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Openweathermap, Open Meteo, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Weather now

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19°clear sky

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7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality: 太原市
Region: 山西省
Country: 中国
Population: 4,303,673
Timezone: Asia/Shanghai

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

81US AQIModerate

PM2.5: 41.2 µg/m³
PM10: 41.9 µg/m³

As of 2026-08-11 08:00 · Open-Meteo

Wikipedia views (30d)

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Key facts

Settlement.name: Taiyuan
Settlement.native_name: 太原市
Settlement.native_name_lang: zh
Settlement.settlement_type: Prefecture-level city
Settlement.nicknames: Bīngzhōu (); Jìnyáng (); Dragon City ()
Settlement.image_map1: Location of Taiyuan Prefecture within Shanxi (China).png
Settlement.map_caption1: Location of Taiyuan City jurisdiction in Shanxi
Settlement.pushpin_map: Shanxi#China
Settlement.pushpin_relief: yes
Settlement.pushpin_label_position: right
Settlement.pushpin_mapsize: 240
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location of the city center in Shanxi
Settlement.coor_pinpoint: Taiyuan municipal government
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_name: China
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Province
Settlement.subdivision_name1: Shanxi
Settlement.seat_type: Municipal seat

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

Situated next to the Fenhe River and surrounded by mountains. Taiyuan has a history of over 2,500 years. Now, Taiyuan is important as home to heavy industry and mining. It has 3 notable sights that can be seen within half a day: the Shanxi Museum, the carvings at Chongshan Temple and The Twin Pagodas.

Buy

One area to visit for shopping is Bell Tower Street where you will find Fenjiu Dasha, Dongfang Department Store, Jinge Clothing Store and lots of smaller stores. Another option is Liu Xiang where you will find Guidu Department store, Wanjia Dasha, other department stores and many fashion shops.

Go next

Pingyao - Famous for its ancient walled city (generally considered the best in China), the typical route taken there is through Taiyuan Wutaishan National Park

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~27 min read

Encyclopedic overview

38 sections

Contents

Etymology and names
History
Pre-Qin dynasty history
Qin dynasty
Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms
Southern and Northern Dynasties
Sui dynasty
Tang dynasty
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
Song dynasty
Yuan state
Ming dynasty
Qing
Republican era
Geography
Natural resources
Climate
Environment
Air pollution
Administrative divisions
Demographics
Economy
Transportation
Public transportation
Air
Highway
Railway
Food
Sports
Tourism
Education and research
Colleges and universities
Major high schools
International relations
See also
Notes
References
External links

As of 2021, the city governs 6 districts, 3 counties, and hosts a county-level city with a total area of 6,988 square kilometers and a permanent population of 5,390,957.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Taiyuan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.