Dàtóng was the capital of two smaller Chinese dynasties before the Mongol conquest.
First, the Northern Wei (386-543) established their capital in Datong (then called Pingcheng) and built the famous Yungang Grottoes. This was during a period of political fragmentation known as Nothern and Southern dynasties. Culture flourished during this time, while Buddhism and Daoism spread.
In the 12th century, the Jurchen Jīn (another non-Han dynasty) made of Datong its “Western capital” (Xijing). The Mongols sacked Datong in 1212, and this was just the beginning of their complete conquest of the Jin territory.
Datong retained an important status for the Ming royals, who built the Prince’s Palace here, establishing the model used decades later in Beijing’s Forbidden City.
Unfortunately, little of that heritage has been preserved. Now Datong is a prefecture-level city in the province of Shānxī (not to be mistaken for neighbouring Shaanxi, on the West) with over 1 million population in the city proper, and over 3 million in the larger municipality.
Nowadays, most of Datong is the typical modern Chinese city with anonymous skyscrapers and concrete blocks hastily built in the last decades to house a population increasing exponentially. At night, it is an interesting sight, though, between futuristic and dystopian!
So why should you even think about going to Datong? Well, because of THIS:
The Yungang Grottoes, just 10 km from Datong city centre, are one of the best preserved Buddhist cave complexes in the world. There are other beautiful places in the region, like the Hanging Temple.
Anyway, once you’re in Datong, it’s worth spending a couple of hours in Datong city too – it still has a few legitimate historical sites – and many more on the making (yes, that’s right!). Datong teaches you a lot about China’s rise in the last decades and its recent tourism development.
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How to arrive in Datong
Datong is 350 km West of Beijing.
High-speed trains are a fantastic alternative to travel in China. The growing high-speed train network serves Datong train station. A train from Beijing takes between 2h and 2h30 (depending on the route) and costs around 150 CNY (20 €).
Regular trains also serve Datong station. The journey from Beijing takes around 6h and costs 50-55 CNY (7€). Apart from the longer trip, seats are considerably less comfortable than in the high-speed train.
There are two night trains running between Beijing and Datong (arriving at 4:20 and 5:50 am). In these, there are regular seats, hard and soft sleepers. A soft sleeper can be a bit more expensive than a high-speed train ticket, but it saves you one hotel night.
By plane: flights from Beijing to Datong (DAT) take around 40 minutes.
China United is a low-cost airline that flies to Datong from Beijing-Daxuan airport (PKX, this is the second airport of Beijing that substituted Nanyuan airport). Air China flies from Beijing-Capital (PEK), the main airport of the Chinese capital.
Usually flights are more expensive than a regular high-speed train ticket, and they don’t really save you any time.
How to arrive in Yungang Grottoes
Yungang is located 18 km West of Datong city centre (Pincheng district). To arrive in Yungang Grottoes from Datong, you can take bus 3, which takes 1 hour and it’s very cheap. Expect to spend half a day visiting the caves.
Visiting Yungang Grottoes
Yúngāng is the largest ancient Buddhist cave complex in China. It was built between 465 – 525, by cutting caves in the rock. The structures are very ellaborate, with monumental Buddhist statues and stupas. It was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
Yungang Caves are an incredible mixture of Buddhist South and Central Asian religious art and Chinese cultural traditions. No wonder, as the Northern Wei dynasty were Touba, a sinicised Turkic or Mongolic clan (there is still debate about their origins).
When you arrive in Yungang, you will first go through a series of more modern, yet beautiful, structures: an avenue of columns with boddhisatvas supported by elephants and a bridge that takes you over a river to a temple complex on a small island in an artificial lake.
Then, comes the real thing, the breathtaking man-made landscape that made you come all the way.
The whole complex has 254 caves! This number includes 45 major grottoes, the larger of which is 17 metres tall – conversely, the smallest of the secondary caves is just 2 centimetres! All caves are numbered and the most interesting are Caves no. 1 to 20.
Some of the caves are painted with beautiful colours, although it is difficult to know what the original colours looked like as they have been repainted more than ten times over the centuries.
Cave 6 is one of the most spectacular in Yungang while Caves 9 to 13 are especially beautiful as they are still painted in vivid colours. A few of the caves have a stupa carved from floor to ceiling and there are myriad boddhisatvas in niches on the walls. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit some of these caves as they were closed for restoration.
Caves 16 to 20 are the oldest in Yungang (built in 460-470) and they aim to display the power of the Northern Wei dynasty. Their giant statues carved on the rock represent five of the dynasty’s emperors as Buddha (Tathagata).
The ceiling of Cave no. 20 collapsed centuries ago, so its iconic 13.7-metre statue is easily seen from everywhere, dominating the whole complex!
Before you leave, go up the stairs on top of the waterfall for a panoramic view of Yungang Grottoes!
What to see in Datong
Datong’s old town had a typical Chinese grid plan that divided the city in quadrants along two axes, enclosed by a square city wall with watchtowers. Unfortunately, most of its heritage has been lost over the centuries.
Nowadays Datong is a growing city of copy-pasted high-rise concrete blocks. Even if it’s certainly not beautiful, such development is impressive and provides a huge contrast to the ancient Yungang Grottoes!
The highlight of Datong city and one of the few remnants of its glorious past is its Nine-Dragon Wall, opposite to the Prince’s Palace, which collapsed in the 17th century. With a length of 45 metres, it is the largest still preserved in China.
Nine-Dragon walls were usually built next to royal palaces and gardens and represent different Chinese dragons. Nine was the number usually associated with the emperor and dragons were powerful mythological creatures that harnessed the elements.
In 2008, the new mayor of Datong decided to rebuild the lost heritage to “bring back history to the centre of Datong”, that is, to turn Datong into a tourist hotspot. First, the Ming walls were fully rebuilt (only a few sections remained), taking many licenses in design and with modern techniques.
Even Prince’s Palace is being rebuilt. Of course, 300 years after its destruction, and just with some maps as graphical documentation, no one really knows how the palace looked like.
This kind of “historical rebuilding” is quite common in China – but Datong has taken it really far, being one of the most controversial historification projects in the country. Do you know any other fabricated “historical cities”? Let us know your experiences and views by posting a comment.
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