We really needed one last trip to wind up our year in China and our trip to Shanxi province turned out to be one of the highlights of the year.  It was especially terrific because Samantha’s best friend Ritika and her family joined us (although we did miss Philip, who had a last minute business trip).  Our first stop was the Jin Ci temple outside of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi.  Shanxi is one of the few provinces in China that retained significance in Chinese history throughout almost all of the major dynasties and the Jin Ci temple reflected that importance. The temple was built in honor of the Duke of Jin, the founder of one of the Warring States (roughly 700 BC).  The existing architecture is more recent, though some of it is as old as 900 years. It was beautiful and combined all of the major styles of Chinese architecture, the palace, stage, building, pavilion, and arch. The temple also has one of the most famous bridges in China with a unique cross-cross shape, which the kids are standing on. In the background, is an example of one of the many ancient (3000 year old!) cyprus trees remaining at the temple. The temple and much of what we saw in Shanxi also demonstrated the melding of the three significant religious/philosophical traditions of China - Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.  Debbie and Sithara particularly noted all of the important buildings honoring mothers throughout the garden. We learned lots more -- enough for a full evening quiz show after dinner, moderated by Steve -- by that’s enough for now.