[2025 Jiexiu Attraction] Travel Guide for Jiexiu Museum (Updated Mar)

: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Worshiping Hou Tu Niangniang, Quanzhen Sect of Taoism. ⭕️Taiheyan Archway: An experience of a thousand years at a glance! It is also the only glazed archway! ⭕️Zoroastrianism Tower: One of the three famous towers in Jin Dynasty, and the only Zoroastrianism building. ⭕️Zhangbi Ancient Castle: Peacock blue glazed plaques from the Ming Dynasty, the structure of the ancient castle Note⚠️ 1️⃣The Taiheyan Archway is far away. Take a bus from Jiexiu Station for 1 hour and walk about 1 kilometer after getting off 2️⃣ Jiexiu will have a lunch break at noon except for the museum I have traveled to 100+ cities in depth Continuously updating...

I've taken my mom to many countries and cities before. I'll also release a video version, which will present a more detailed travel experience. Welcome everyone to stay tuned! 🥰Overall Impression: "Return from Jiexiu, see no more glazed pottery." Compared to Pingyao, Jiexiu, the "Glazed Pottery Capital of China," is less well-known, but it boasts the Aoshen Tower, one of the "Three Famous Towers of Shanxi," and the Houtu Temple, known as the "Museum of Glazed Pottery Art," both still vibrant after thousands of years. I recommend everyone to visit this colorful small city! Surprise! The Lingkong Tower has no stairs from the fourth floor upwards. You have to use both hands and feet to climb vertically up and down. I admire myself for climbing to the ninth floor! 📖Guide is here! 🚝Transportation: Train, Beijing Fengtai - Jiexiu East, 4 hrs 🏨Accommodation: Mehood Lestie Hotel near Beitan Middle Road 🍜Specialties: Lao Jiexiu Restaurant, Zuima Zhanpianze Daquan 🚕: Ride-hailing apps are available, but there are no private cars, only taxis, which are easy to hail. The drivers I met were all very nice. ❌This is not the case now! (Except for museums, other attractions are closed from 12:00-14:30) 🥰My Slow Travel Itinerary D1: Take the high-speed rail to Jiexiu East Station, take a taxi to the ancient city, check in, and have Jiexiu cuisine for dinner. D2: (Taxi) Taiheyan Archway → (Taxi back) Houtu Temple → (Walk) Wuyue Temple (currently closed) → (Walk) Jiexiu City God Temple → (Walk) Aoshen Tower → (Walk) Jiexiu Museum → Dinner D3: (Taxi) Lingkong Tower → (Taxi) Zhangbi Ancient Fortress → Take the high-speed rail back to Beijing in the afternoon ☺️Recommended One-Day Itinerary: (Taxi) Taiheyan Archway → (Taxi back) Houtu Temple → (Walk) Wuyue Temple (currently closed) → (Walk) Jiexiu City God Temple → (Walk) Aoshen Tower → (Walk) Jiexiu Museum → (Taxi) Lingkong Tower → (Taxi) Zhangbi Ancient Fortress 🎫Tickets: All free, ID registration required at the entrance. Zhangbi Ancient Fortress: 75 📍Taiheyan Archway Originally the front archway of the Zhenwu Temple (now destroyed), located in Beixinwu Village, Yian Town, Jiexiu City, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. Built in the 23rd year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1897). The archway is richly decorated and is a typical masterpiece of Chinese glazed pottery art during its Ming and Qing Dynasty heyday. 📍Houtu Temple A Quanzhen Taoist temple, the original construction date is unknown, with written records dating back to the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. It is a rare gem of Ming and Qing Dynasty pavilion-style architecture and was listed as a fifth-batch national protected site in 2001. It is known as the "Museum of Glazed Pottery Art." 📍Aoshen Tower Originally built in the Northern Song Dynasty, it is the only remaining Zoroastrian building in China. It was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty and is known as one of the "Three Famous Towers of Shanxi" along with the Qiufeng Tower and Feiyun Tower in Wanrong County. It was listed as a fourth-batch national protected site in 1996. Zoroastrianism, also known as fire worship, is an ancient religion that has disappeared. This tower is said to have been built by the Confucian minister Wen Yanbo during the Northern Song Dynasty. 📍City God Temple Built during the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, it is a well-preserved ancient wooden building and was listed as a seventh-batch national protected site in 2013. 📍Wuyue Temple Originally built in the Ming Dynasty, the roof ridges are decorated with glazed pottery, primarily in peacock blue. It was listed as a sixth-batch national protected site in 2006. Unfortunately, it was closed. 📍Lingkong Tower Also known as Gugu Shen Tower and Longfeng Tower, it is located near Longfeng Village. Nine stories high, stairs lead to the third floor. From the fourth floor onwards, you need to climb straight up and down, which is challenging but definitely worth it! 📍Zhangbi Ancient Fortress Backed by Mianshan Mountain, it is higher in the south and lower in the north, forming a rectangle. Looking down from the north of the fortress, there are three deep gullies extending downwards on the left, middle, and right. There are three external passages to the south of the fortress. To the west is Yaowan Gully, with steep cliffs and slopes more than 30 meters deep. The east side overlooks the surroundings, with gullies and trenches as barriers, making it "easy to defend and difficult to attack, with escape routes." The streets and alleys are clearly structured, with shops and ancient houses on both sides. The most famous is the Khan Shrine. Existing temples include the Kongwang Shrine and the Guan Di Temple. The Zhangbi Ancient Fortress has a network of underground tunnels, forming an underground military defense system.

Jiexiu Museum is a museum with a history of 2,500 years, located at No. 153 Sanxian Avenue, Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province (next to Sanxian Square), and adjacent to the famous Xianshen Tower of Shanxi Province. The museum has four basic exhibitions, namely "Jiexiu History and Culture Exhibition", "Museum Collection of Fine Cultural Relics Exhibition", "Jiexiu Glazed Art Exhibition" and "Jiexiu Kiln Ancient Ceramics Art Exhibition". There are 8,408 pieces in the collection. Among them, the "Jiexiu History and Culture Exhibition" introduces the ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, stone carvings and steles, historical celebrities, etc. of Jiexiu. The "Museum Collection of Fine Cultural Relics Exhibition" brings together fine cultural relics, divided into three units: "Danqing Art", "Clay Transformation" and "Magnificent Treasures". Calligraphy and painting works are featured exhibits, such as the treasure of the museum, "Ming Ningzhai Landscape Silk Painting Scroll", which was made by Zhu Chengbi, the great-grandson of Emperor Gao of the Ming Dynasty, and is the largest of the two surviving paintings. There is also the "Famous Artists Painting Fan Lianzhu" calligraphy and painting album, which brings together the works of many famous artists from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty for more than 200 years, which is a treasure of Ming and Qing art, and there are many bamboo curtain embroidery. Jiexiu is the national "hometown of glazed tiles", which was fired in the Tang Dynasty, and after the development of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the glazed tiles are rich in variety, bright as a mirror, bright and long-lasting, strong and durable, and are used in many palaces, mausoleums, temples, temples, etc. The museum has a special "Glazed Tiles Exhibition" glazed art exhibition hall, divided into five units: "Mingyu Liudan", "Huacai Shadow Wall", "Glazed Tiles", "National Protection Collection" and "Ancient Building Relics", which show the production, craftsmanship and dissemination of glazed components in ancient buildings, and the fine components, most of which are some architectural fragments replaced during the restoration of buildings such as Jiexiu Houtu Temple, Wuyue Temple, and Chenghuang Temple. Although they are fragments, they still have high historical and artistic value, and many of them are glazed architectural decorations from the Jin and Yuan to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Jiexiu Kiln (Hongshan Kiln), one of the nine famous kilns of the Northern Song Dynasty, has been fired for thousands of years, and the site of Jiexiu Kiln is the central site of Shanxi ceramic culture. The exhibition hall displays the archaeological and excavation of Jiexiu kiln, and exhibits more than 70 pieces of ancient ceramics from Jiexiu kiln during the Song and Jin dynasties. The treasure of the museum is a two-meter-high Ming Dynasty three-dragon glazed chi kiss, and the yellow and blue glaze four lion bottle glazed ridge decoration is the prototype of the iconic sculpture of the four lion bottle in the center of the county town. Although there are not many cultural relics in the museum, there are also many fine products, and the five major treasures of the museum are: 1. the great-grandson of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, Ningzhai Landscape Silk Painting Scroll, 2. the "Famous Artists Painting Fan Lianzhu" calligraphy and painting album compiled by Ji Chang of the Qing Dynasty, 3. the yellow-green blue glaze glazed chi kiss of the Ming Dynasty, 4. the gilded bronze seated statue of Shakyamuni of the Ming Dynasty, and 5. the bronze jue with banana leaf pattern of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Jiexiu has a history of 2,500 years, a long history, a deep culture, and many famous monuments such as Jinshan Scenic Area, Zhangbi Ancient Castle, Houtu Temple, Xianshen Tower, Hongshan Kiln Site, Glazed Archway, Chenghuang Temple, etc.

Because Liuli knows Jiexiu Jiexiu One-Day City Walk Route Hou Tu Temple→Cheng Huang Temple→Zao Shen Tower→Jiexiu Museum I didn't go to the Taiheyan Archway which is a little further away. 1⃣Houtu Temple It is a Taoist Quanzhen Sect temple building. The main buildings include Sanqing Building, Houtu Temple, Guandi Temple, Tushen Temple, etc. The roof of the entire building is decorated with blue, yellow and green glazed products, which sparkle in the sun. 💰Tickets: Free. Enter with your Mainland China ID card. If you don’t have your Mainland China ID card, just register. 🕙 Closed on Monday 2⃣Chenghuang Temple It takes more than ten minutes to walk from Hou Tu Temple to Cheng Huang Temple. The overall layout of the City God Temple is grand in scale and complete in form. The screen wall, mountain gate, ceremonial gate, stage, offering hall, main hall, and rear sleeping hall are arranged in sequence along the central axis, with bell and drum towers on both sides. The exquisite glazed components on the roof of the building are the few Ming Dynasty relics that still exist in Jiexiu. The glazed ridge tiles, the beast-shaped owl tails, the immortals and animals, and the pavilion vases are perfect in both color glaze and shape, and have high cultural relic and artistic value. 💰Tickets: Free, just register with your Mainland China ID card 🕙 Closed on Monday 3⃣Ao Shen Lou It takes about a quarter of an hour to walk from Chenghuang Temple to Ao Shen Tower. It is the only ancient Zoroastrian building preserved in China. 4⃣Jiexiu Museum Ao Shen Lou is a five-minute walk from Jiexiu Museum. Time was a bit tight, so I mainly went to the basement to see the glass The super cute yellow glazed beast is also here, with round eyes and furrowed brows. 💰Tickets: Free, just register with your Mainland China ID card 🕙 Closed on Monday

Address: Sanxian Avenue, Jiexiu City, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. Jiexiu Museum is located on Sanxian Avenue, next to Sanxian Square. The museum is quite large. Although there are not many exhibits, they are very distinctive. The glazed exhibition and production process on the basement floor are very vivid and worth a visit. Jiexiu Museum currently houses more than 500 cultural relics, mainly handed down from generation to generation. These include: a large landscape painting on silk by Ming Ningzhai, fan paintings and calligraphy collected by Sha Jifu, a large collector in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty, silk paintings and calligraphy by Yu Ling, Lan Shen, Yu Jing and other painters during the Qianlong period, a bamboo fan carved by Yu Wenhuazi An, a bronze gui from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and a bronze mirror from the Western Han Dynasty.

The annual International Museum Day is just around the corner! This time, let me introduce to you a beautiful museum hidden in a small county town in Shanxi - the Jiexiu Museum! Jiexiu in Shanxi is known as the 'Hometown of Chinese Glazed Pottery,' and Jiexiu glazed pottery holds an important position in the history of glazed art heritage. To this day, a large number of glazed relics with unique local cultural characteristics are still preserved in the region! Located on the basement level of the museum, the 'Jiexiu Glazed Art Exhibition' features nearly a hundred exhibits, most of which are architectural remnants replaced during the restoration of ancient buildings such as the Jiexiu Hou Earth Temple, Wuyue Temple, and City God Temple. Although they are remnants, they still reflect the high level of Jiexiu glazed art and its beauty during the Ming and Qing dynasties! Among them, the following three exhibits left the deepest impression on me! 1. The treasure of the museum, a two-meter-tall, one-ton yellow-green-blue glazed pottery chiwen (ridge beast) from the main hall of the Yuanshen Temple in Shitun Village, Hongshan Town! This chiwen, with its mouth open to swallow the ridge and a beast sculpted on its back, has a giant dragon spiraling upwards, with blue glaze on its back fin and tail, and golden yellow glaze on its scales, with the swallowing beast mainly in yellow-green glaze. The bright colors and varied shapes represent the highest level of Ming dynasty Jiexiu glazed products! 2. A Ming dynasty yellow glazed ridge beast component, its name is 'Xiezhi' (a mythological creature), with a pair of big, black, and innocent eyes, looking both aggrieved and adorable, like a simple and honest emoji package, which has also made it popular on the internet as a 'minor cultural relic'! 3. A yellow and blue glazed pottery ridge decoration with four lions lifting a vase, originally the top decoration of the bell and drum tower of the Jiexiu Wuyue Temple. There was originally a treasure vase in the middle of the four lions, symbolizing 'peace and tranquility at all times, in all seasons, and for generations to come'! Today, a replica of this glazed sculpture, 6.6 meters high with a base, standing nearly 10 meters tall in total, has been recreated by Jiexiu's intangible cultural heritage craftsmen in the Sanxian Square outside the museum, dazzlingly gorgeous and full of vitality!

Those who come to Jiexiu for tourism and do not wish to climb mountains must not miss the local Jiexiu. Those precious visitors traveling to Shanxi must not overlook this niche destination with a small economy and few people. Jiexiu is brimming with cultural relics, and those who love ancient architecture must not miss it. Here, there is no crowding, no excessive marketing, just the relaxed atmosphere of a small town. Looking at these ancient buildings and the exquisite glazed tiles, I always wonder what this place was like in the past, and whether the people back then also looked on as we do now. Although Jiexiu is a county-level city, its urban construction is very orderly, and the transportation network is well-planned. The whole city remains quiet, and beneath the ancient buildings, many people are still living their daily lives. Jiexiu is famous for its glazed tiles, and in Jiexiu, no bare roof ridge is allowed by the glazed tiles.

Jiexiu is known as the 'Hometown of Three Sages' because of the Spring and Autumn period's Jie Zitui, Eastern Han's Guo Linzong, and Northern Song's Wen Yanbo. Originating from the ancient pre-Qin era, Jiexiu, as a city with a long history, naturally possesses a rich heritage of cultural relics and a profound regional culture, especially in terms of ceramic and colored glaze craftsmanship. Jiexiu Museum, through the display of ancient tombs, ancient architecture, stone carvings and steles, Hongshan kiln ceramics, and the application of colored glaze craftsmanship, showcases the unique charm of Jiexiu culture, which is precisely what is meant by 'small yet exquisite' when referring to Jiexiu Museum. Located in the city center, next to the museum is the Xian Shen Tower, and if you walk towards Shuncheng Gate Old Street, you will find the City God Temple on Dong Da Street. After visiting the museum and seeing these old buildings, one can quickly and thoroughly understand the humanistic spirit of Jiexiu.