Shanxi Tourism Day 4 in Northern Shanxi: Hengshan's Yong'an Temple and Hanging Temple

I arrived in Hunyuan County the night before and stayed at the Zhou Shu Inn, which I highly recommend. It's full of antique-style bungalows, and the breakfast is amazing (see the last two photos). During the off-season, you can enjoy a thousand-yuan experience for just two to three hundred yuan. Hunyuan's overall planning is excellent, especially the delicious food. For dinner, I had the Northern Shanxi Old Kitchen, and for lunch the next day, I went to Cai's Restaurant, both of which were among the top experiences of the trip. Yong'an Temple was recommended by netizens when I was planning the trip, and it was indeed fantastic! I'm glad I didn't miss it! Inside, there's a whole wall of murals, and to protect them, there are no lights at all in the main hall. It's not as dark as others have said; after the first minute or two, you can see everything clearly. We were lucky to have a friend who studies painting with us, who was full of praise for the murals. He explained the layout and the use of gradients and negative space. We spent nearly two hours examining the Yuan Dynasty murals on the wall opposite us, character by character. When I visited, it was just after the Lantern Festival, and there were still lanterns and dragons at the entrance of the main hall, which shows the temple's harmonious relationship with the local community. It's not isolated from the ancient architecture like in some other places. On the way out, I also visited Yuanjue Temple, which has a Jin Dynasty brick pagoda. If you're short on time, you can see the pagoda from Yong'an Temple; it complements the ancient city beautifully. After lunch, we went to the Hanging Temple, a ten-minute drive from Hunyuan County. The existing buildings and the deities they house were largely restored at the end of the Qing Dynasty. After seeing so many temples, I found this one to be somewhat disappointing. You don't have to pay if you just look from below, and the ticket to climb to the top is 100 yuan. All five of us felt that it was enough to view it from below, and if you've seen similar mountain architecture before, there's no need to climb to the top.