Why it looks like this

Taiyuan's site was so strategically strong that an emperor destroyed it: in 979, after conquering the defiant northern kingdom based at Jinyang, Song Taizong had the ancient city burned and then flooded to erase its 'royal energy'. The replacement town, built nearby, grew into today's Taiyuan.

The modern capital of Shanxi is a coal-and-steel city stretched along the Fen River, mountains east and west funneling it north–south. The map shows that long valley logic: parallel avenues running with the river, bridges every kilometre, industry at the seams.