Taiyuan city, capital of North China's Shanxi province, is one of the first recorded areas of human activity and it retains a great deal of physical evidence of early human civilization. 

Among the iconic examples of Taiyuan's immovable cultural relics is Jinci Temple, the largest ancestral temple-style classical garden in China. Then there are the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes, a model of ancient Chinese sculpture art, while there are the Longshan Grottoes – the largest Taoist grottoes in China. Elsewhere, is the Tongzi Temple light tower – the oldest stone light tower in China and Asia. 

Taiyuan also has a rich collection of cultural relics in its museums, including unearthed cultural relics, ancient calligraphy and painting works, porcelain and revolutionary relics. 

Among the unearthed cultural relics, the cultural relics of the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577) are distinctive – with a large number and many categories – and they play an important role in the cultural relics of the Northern Dynasty (386-581) in Shanxi province. 

Jinci Temple Museum is one of important venues for the preservation of works by renowned calligrapher Fu Shan and it houses porcelain articles of fine quality from the Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties.