Taiyuan Airport (IATA: TYN) offers flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Xi'an daily and regular services to Chinese tourists who plan to visit Wu Tai Shan and Ping Yao.

Taiyuan experiences a semi-arid climate. Spring is dry, with frequent dust storms, followed by early summer heat waves. Summer tends to be warm to hot with most of the year's rainfall concentrated in July and August. Winter is long and cold, but dry and sunny. Because of the aridity, there tends be considerable diurnal variation in temperature, except during the summer. Conditions are much cooler than comparable-latitude cities, such as Shijiazhuang, due to the moderately high altitude.  The monthly 24-hour average temperature range from −5.5 °C (22.1 °F) in January to 23.4 °C (74.1 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 9.96 °C (49.9 °F).

Several tourist attractions in and around Taiyuan include the Liu Xiang Lane, which contains ancient Chinese houses of important heritage, and several temples, such as the Chongshan Monastery, the Jinci Temple, the Twin Pagoda Temple, and the Shaunglin Monastery Longtan Park and Yinze Park are also popular tourist destinations. Taiyuan is also known for its Liuxiang shopping district and the construction of parks and recreational areas that are praised by the UN Environmental Programme for their role in the improvement of the environmental condition of Taiyuan. Taiyuan's environmental improvement project is being copied in many other Chinese cities and urban areas around the world.