Shanxi's wonders inspire art of hit game

According to ancient Chinese astrology, the universe is composed of 28 constellations governed by various deities. As the deities are always accompanied by a certain animal, they are named after the animal plus one element out of sun, moon, metal, wood, water, fire and earth. For instance, Kangjinlong — the stereotype of a much loved figure in the game — literally means "Soaring Metal Dragon".

"Figures of 28 constellations are commonly seen in many sites of the Taoist religion," Yin said. "But the ones in Jincheng's Yuhuang Temple have unique historical and aesthetic values."

He explained that all the colored statues of constellation deities there were created by famous Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) sculptor Liu Yuan. "They are well preserved and feature vivid facial, emotional expressions you can hardly find elsewhere."

The official added that there are many other things with similar historical and cultural values, like the structures built in the Song (960-1279) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties and wall paintings created since the Song Dynasty.

"Over the past few years, we have devoted much energy to promote the value of the temple among tourists," Yin said. "We are receiving an increasing number of visitors this year — about 50,000 visits to date."

He noted many of the visitors are young people taking part in study tours like fine art students and designers portraying the statues and wall paintings.

The official added that the successful launch of Black Myth: Wukong ignited a drastic increase in visits at the end of last month.

A tourist surnamed Li, who is from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, is among visitors arriving at Yuhuang Temple after the release of the game.

"I'm here to see the 'angry goddess' of Kangjinlong," she said. "To my delight, I've found exactly the same thing in the temple."

Latest media reports predicted that Shanxi will be among the hottest destinations during the coming National Day holiday in early October thanks to the game. On popular online travel platform Qunar, the number of searches of Shanxi soared by 1.2 times in August compared with the previous month.

Hao Hong contributed to this story.