Downtown Taiyuan. The heavy smog prevents any view of the river...Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China. December 2008. Taiyuan is the capital of the Shanxi province of China; also know as the coal belt. Taiyuan is one of the most important industrial cities in China. However, the industry has also made the city to one of the most polluted in China. There are believed that hundreds of thousand Chinese dies from air pollution each year..