Get to know Daixian
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Full frame retained; proportionally resized and converted to WebP. No retouching or changes to the photographed subject. Card displays may crop the view.
- Administrative area
- County · 县
- Part of
- Xinzhou
- Chinese name
- 代县
- Local areas
- County guide
Area & population
- Area in the source
- 1,729.00 km²
- Population · 2020
- 178,870
Source: cited geographic source, as of the dates shown.
The town’s drum tower
Bian Jing Lou is a brick-and-timber tower first built in 1374. After a fire in 1471, it was rebuilt on an enlarged platform, with further repairs under the Qing. Its three storeys have galleries, and the building rises above a brick-vaulted platform. The roof presents four tiers of eaves, with large inscribed plaques suspended above.
Daizhou yellow wine
Daizhou huangjiu (代州黄酒) uses locally grown millet. Brewing involves steaming and cooling the grain, adding fermentation starter, fermenting, pressing and sterilising. The drink also appears in the county’s historical links with Shanxi (山西) merchants, who carried it on their travels.
Sources for this guide
雁门关：一座边塞古城的“文化复兴”-新华网 · Xinhua Daily Telegraph
代县边靖楼 · Daixian County Government
Original English written from the listed sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer. Updated 2026-09-26.
Explore Daixian
Core places to explore, with English and Chinese names.
Places to explore around Daixian
Yanmen Pass from the southern slope · 雁门关Yanmen Pass雁门关
Yanmen Pass guards a mountain crossing north of Dai County. Its walls and gatehouses explain how a pass worked as a defended settlement, with a trading street below the military buildings. The Dili and Tianxian gates give the…
Read the place guide →
Bianjing Tower, the historic drum tower of Dai County, rising above the old city wall at dusk · 代县边靖楼（鼓楼）矗立于古城墙之上，黄昏景色 Source-recorded photograph date: 2013-03-10 17:59:15.Bianjing Tower边靖楼
Daixian's 40-metre Ming drum tower, first built in 1374 and described by China Daily as China's largest wooden drum tower.
Read the place guide →Plan your visit
Getting there
Daixian is about 75 km in a straight line from central Xinzhou. Search for 代县 in a map app to find stations and your accommodation.
Where to stay →Build your route
Yanmen Pass and Bianjing Tower are both listed here. The linked place guides have entrance and visit details.
Continue with Xinzhou →More in Xinzhou
Sources & geographic information
Administrative names and parent areas: Official geographic directory · Reference date 2026-09-06.
Photo: Yanmen Pass · N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and WebP compressed; subject not altered.
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Photo: Bianjing Tower · Redpipe · CC BY-SA 3.0. Full frame retained; proportionally resized and converted to WebP. No retouching or changes to the photographed subject. Card displays may crop the view.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Pins mark approximate centres, not entrances or boundaries.