Jinci

Jinci, located in Jinci Town, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, was originally named Jinwang Temple, and initially called Tang Shuyu Temple, built to commemorate the founding prince of the Jin state, Tang Shuyu (later posthumously titled King of Jin) and his mother, Queen Yi Jiang. Jinci houses representative Song Dynasty architecture such as the Holy Mother Hall, the uniquely shaped cross-shaped ancient bridge Fish Pond Flying Bridge, and the Jin Dynasty building Xian Hall, which resembles a hall but is suspected to be a pavilion. These have been identified by the National Ministry of Culture as three national treasure buildings; the Zhou Cypress, Nanlao Spring, and Song Dynasty maid statues within the temple are known as the 'Three Wonders of Jinci'; the Duoyue Workshop, Nanlao, and Shuijing Platform are collectively referred to as the 'Three Plaques of Jinci'. Jinci is the earliest existing royal ancestral garden in China, the ancestral temple of the Jin state; it is a concentrated carrier of ancient Chinese architectural art, a unique example in the country with a complete sequence of architectural types and historical periods from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China, with all its attached colored sculptures, murals, and steles considered national treasures.