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Explore the region
About Nine-Dragon Wall (Datong)
Its glazed surface turns a long screen into a procession of nine differently posed dragons among clouds and waves, with further animal and floral relief on the base. The wall was dismantled and reassembled nearby during twentieth-century road works. Examine it as a surviving architectural object with a conservation history, rather than assuming the surrounding palace reconstruction is of the same age.
The wall was built between 1392 and 1396, the twenty-fifth to twenty-ninth years of the Hongwu era, for Zhu Gui (朱桂), the thirteenth son of the Hongwu Emperor and Prince of Dai, during construction of his princely residence at Datong. It is usually considered the screen wall facing the residence's Yumen gate (裕门). Because it was commissioned by a feudal prince rather than the emperor, its dragons have only four claws, a form termed a mang (蟒) under ritual codes, rather than the five-clawed dragon reserved for the Son of Heaven. The residence was destroyed amid fighting at the end of the Ming and start of the Qing, but the wall survived.
The wall is 45.5 metres long, 8 metres high and 2.02 metres thick, and is divided into a crest, a body and a Sumeru pedestal (须弥座); the crest is decorated with lotus flowers and roaming dragons. In August 1954, road construction required the wall to be dismantled and reassembled about 28 metres south of its original site; grey brick was used to fill in parts lost during the move, and some components were reportedly reassembled in the wrong position. The wall was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in 2001.
What to look for
- The nine glazed dragons, whose poses and colours vary across the cloud-and-wave background.
- The decorated base and roofline, which frame the main relief rather than simply supporting it.
Location & getting there
Getting to Nine-Dragon Wall (Datong)
Go to the Nine-Dragon Wall on Heyang Street in Datong's old city, by the Prince of Dai palace area.
- Use the screen's own visitor entrance; the neighbouring rebuilt palace is a separate attraction.
Combine your visit
Suggested order within this visit:
-
Full-wall viewpoint
Take in the overall sequence and proportions.
-
Glazed-relief viewing route
Compare individual dragons, base motifs and repaired sections from the public side.
This sequence is an editorial suggestion based on the features described in the sources. Access to individual buildings or areas should be checked locally; no travel time or shared admission is implied.
Find Nine-Dragon Wall (Datong)
九龙壁 · 大同市
The pin marks the area, not the entrance.
More places nearby
Approximate straight-line distances between map pins, not travel distances.
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View guide →Sources & visit information
The linked encyclopedia sources support background and place descriptions. Current opening hours, ticket prices, booking rules and transport schedules have not been independently verified for this guide. Confirm them with the venue or operator before travelling.
Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 93696150.
Background paragraphs translated and condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "大同九龙壁", Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 93696150.