Discover Your Way

Jinci Temple near Taiyuan pairs its Song-dynasty Holy Mother Hall with a spring pool that has fed the grounds for some 1,500 years, its halls ranged around the water.

A Qing merchant stronghold of grey-brick lanes and lantern-lit courtyards, the Qiao Family Compound later stood in as the set for the film Raise the Red Lantern.

Mount Wutai, one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains, gathers dozens of temples along its five ridges, the guide pacing a day around the great Manjushri halls.

Wutai Buddhist temples span Tang to Qing rebuilding - the old timber halls and the towering Avalokiteshvara are the stops that hold you longest on the mountain.

At Yungang Grottoes, 45 caves and tens of thousands of statues carved under the Northern Wei line the cliff, led by the open-air Buddha of Cave 20.

First built in 1056, Huayan Temple in Datong is one of China's largest surviving Liao monastery halls, with towering clay Buddhas and a scripture repository.

Pingyao's Ming walls ring about 6 km and 72 watchtowers; you walk the street grid below them and read the whole planned old city from a wall section.

Spread across nine ranked courtyards and more than 200 rooms, the Wang Family Compound was built for one merchant clan and keeps its layout intact.

Raised in 1056 without nails or glue, the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda stands some 67 metres, the oldest and tallest all-timber pagoda still left anywhere on earth.

From the path you look up at the temple wedged on its Hengshan beams, your guide on how the structure has held in place for close on 1,500 years.