Self-driving in Shanxi

After three years of the pandemic, we went to Yunnan for three years, and this summer vacation we went to a completely different region. Since we were driving, we stopped in Xi'an on the first day, and officially started our trip to Shanxi on the second day. The first stop was the Guanque Tower in Yongji City, which is close to the east bank of the Yellow River. On the flat land, the Guanque Tower stands in front of us, which is really shocking. Although it is a reconstruction, we can still feel the superb design skills of our ancestors. The second stop was the Guandi Temple in Jie (hài)zhou, also known as the Ancestral Temple of Guandi. In addition to telling us the history of the temple, the guide also told us a touching story. Due to the war in Changpingli, many people with the surname Guan fled to the area around the ancient village to take refuge. Guan Yu's parents were old and inconvenient to move. In order to avoid Guan Yu's worries, his parents committed suicide by jumping into a well here. Later generations built a tower on this well to commemorate his parents. The third stop was Wang's Courtyard, Pingyao Ancient Town, and Jinci Temple. One is an architectural art museum with traditional cultural characteristics, representing the culture of Shanxi merchants; the other is the most complete ancient county in China, representing the history of folk life; the last one is Jinci Temple, with three unique cultural relics, three treasures, three plaques, and various wonderful stories told by the guide, as if taking us back to that period of history. The fourth stop was Yanmen Pass, which is an important pass on the Great Wall, known for its "danger" and is known as the "First Pass of China". We were lucky enough to spend three hours climbing all the main routes of the pass. The fifth stop was the Wooden Pagoda in Ying County, with its ingenious structural design, a wooden building weighing more than 7,400 tons, without a single nail, but standing for thousands of years, it is a wonder in the history of world architecture; the Hanging Temple, a "dangerous building" on the cliff, amazed us. The last stop was the thousand-year-old Huayan Temple and Yungang Grottoes, one of the four major grottoes in China, in Datong City. There are too many cultural relics, historical stories, and cultural heritage that cannot be described in words, and can only be experienced and felt by oneself. "Three thousand years to see Shaanxi, five thousand years to see Shanxi", this sentence is enough to prove the status of Shanxi in the long river of history, I believe this trip will definitely leave a strong mark in my memory.