The beauty of the mountains of Shanxi province may serve as a lure for tourists, but for the villagers that inhabit the region, the spectacular rock formations and climatic extremes have been obstructions as well as a source of awesome pride.
Cities such as Taiyuan, Jinzhong, Changzhi, and Jincheng in North China's Shanxi province were unknown to me until a recent five-day visit to what is perfectly named the "Land of Splendors".
From Beijing to Shanxi province, the train cuts its way between terraced rice fields, open grasslands and imposing rock formations. Hills and mountains that reach heights of over 3,000 meters above sea level, with rivers running across them, cover around 80 percent of the province.
Shanxi province is home to ancient architectural structures, stunning natural landscapes, important places of religious worship and three UNESCO world heritage sites.
At a glance, the Old Town of Pingyao astonishes me. Once a fortified city, then a financial center and now an archeological time capsule filled with 2700 years of history, Pingyao is China's best-preserved ancient community.
While on an after-dinner stroll in Wutai county, I entered an art and crafts shop containing beautiful Buddhist paintings (thangkas) where a group of Chinese were having a tea ceremony around a large table.
Many of my group had lost sight of each other when we entered the Imperial Grotto Temple, fashioned like a fortress but lustered with gold-colored facsimiles of spiritual deities to please the mass of tourists making pilgrimages to Shanxi's famed site for prayer.
