Datong overview 大同

About Datong

That mixture is the key to reading the city: surviving timber interiors and sculpture sit within a largely renewed streetscape. A first circuit can concentrate on Huayan Temple, Shanhua Temple and the Nine-Dragon Wall. Yungang and the Hunyuan mountain sites are separate excursions beyond this compact old-city plan.

The Datong area lay near the ancient state of Dai, conquered by the Zhao clan of Jin in 457 BC, and formed a frontier between agricultural China and the nomads of the Great Steppe. Under the Qin dynasty it was Pingcheng County (平城县), part of the Yanmen commandery; the Han dynasty founded a site there in 200 BC after defeating the Xiongnu at the Battle of Baideng, and Pingcheng became a caravan stop between China and Mongolia before being sacked at the end of the Eastern Han.

Pingcheng served as capital of the Northern Wei dynasty from 398 to 494, during which the Yungang Grottoes were built between 460 and 494. Under the Tang dynasty it became the seat of Yunzhou prefecture. Renamed Datong in 1048, the city was the Western Capital of the Jurchen Jin dynasty before being sacked by the Mongols, then served as a Ming military stronghold; the Drum Tower and Nine-Dragon Wall date from this period, and the city was sacked again in 1649 before being rebuilt in 1652.

Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province, in the Datong Basin at an elevation of 1,040 metres, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. Its 2020 census population was 3,105,591, with 1,790,452 in the built-up area.

What to look for

• Huayan and Shanhua temples, where early timber halls contain major Buddhist sculpture ensembles.
• The Nine-Dragon Wall, a surviving Ming glazed screen within the renewed historic centre.

Location & getting there

Getting to Datong

Begin at Huayan Temple Square in Datong's old city, then use the local street network for the other central monuments.

• Keep transfers to Yungang or Hunyuan separate from the old-city circuit.