The Shanxi Loongs play in Taiyuan 太原.  They play in the Northern Division of the Chinese Basketball Association  中国男子篮球职业联赛 . They were founded in 2001 and play at the  Taiyuan Riverside Sports Centre Gymnasium  太原市滨河体育中心体育馆  in front of 8000 spectators.  The team played in the International Basketball League in 2008, which is a spring/summer league based in Portland, Oregon.  The team's roster consists of an all-Chinese teams except for three international players - two from the United States, and one from Russia. The American players are Isaiah Taylor, who played in the NCCA (American College) Big 12 with the Texas Longhorns. He went undrafted, but signed with the Houston Rockets, first playing in their NBA Development League. He did make it in the NBA and has played 71 career games - four with Houston and 67 with Atlanta. He did sign with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, but was waived a month after signing his contract. He spent some time in the NBA De...

This is a photo of the Twin Pagoda Temple  双塔寺  found in Taiyuan. The two pagodas date back to the Ming Dynasty. The east pagoda was build in 1597, while the west one was built until 1612. A high ranking monk named Fodeng  佛灯  was in charge of the construction.  Deterioration of the pagodas has resulted in a slant of the east pagoda of almost 3 meters from its centre of gravity. By removing earth underneath the pagoda successfully corrected this slant.  The pagodas are eight cornered. The west pagoda is 54.78 meters tall, and the east one is 53.3 meters. 

Taiyuan  太原 is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province  山西. It is an ancient city dating back more than 2500 years (497 BCE). In 453 BCE during the Battle of Jinyang, Zhi Yao, the ruler of Zhi, a vassal state of Jin, the flow of the Fen River was diverted in order to inundate the city. This caused significant damage to the city. Eventually the Zhi were annihilated by the Zhoa. Today the city is home to 5.3 million people. Shanxi produces a quarter of China's coal. Taiyuan is also considered a transportation hub in north China, as many of the major highways go through here. It is also a main national hub for the high speed rail system of norther China. In 2016, the city began converting its 8000 taxi fleet to electric vehicles.