3 Days in Yuncheng

The salt lake spread along the city's southern edge covers about 132 km2 and has been worked for some 4,600 years — the dense brine holds a swimmer up the way the Dead Sea does. The Tang-dynasty Salt-Pool God Temple on the shore records the trade that built this city.

1. yuncheng salt lake
2. yuncheng chishen temple

An hour southwest to Yongji, where the rebuilt Guanque Tower rises 73.9 m above the river plain — Wang Zhihuan's climb-above poem is cut at its base — the Pujin Ford displays four giant iron oxen cast in 724 to anchor an old pontoon bridge, and the Pujiu Temple keeps the Yingying echo pagoda of the play Romance of the Western Chamber.

1. yuncheng guanque tower
2. yuncheng pujin iron oxen
3. yuncheng pujiu temple

Twenty-odd kilometers south at Haizhou stands the temple dedicated to general Guan Yu, a native son of these parts — founded in 589 and rebuilt after a 1702 fire, it is the largest Guan Yu temple complex in the country. A market lunch in town, then the HSR from Yuncheng North.

1. yuncheng haizhou guandi temple
2. yuncheng city markets