Colette's Grand Detour

The Datong Nine-Dragon Wall is pretty magnificent. And its even more so when you realise the size of the palace that it must have been the front door for!

Located in the center of the ‘old town’ of Datong, the Nine-Dragon Wall was built in 1392 (Ming Dynasty) as part of Zhu Gui’s Palace and is the oldest and largest Nine-Dragon Wall remaining in China. Zhu Gui was a prince, the son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This wall is not a decoration, but rather the entrance to the palace, known as a yingbi. Its job just inside the main gate of a palace (or any other important building) is to block direct views into the courtyard providing privacy as well as physical and spiritual protection. You can see much smaller and less elaborate versions of this all over China. Even an ordinary family might have a simple brick screen wall. But to have a Nine-Dragon Wall – this was something only Princes and Emperors could have commissioned. The number nine and the image of a dragon are both highly symbolic in Chinese culture, and signify power and status.

This particular yingbi is 46m long, 8 m high and 2 m thick and covered in 426 specially fire-glazed tiles. The tile work is absolutely brilliant – the colors are super bright and range from deep golden yellows to lovely teal blues and use a high-relief style so that the images really stand out. Along the entirety of the wall there are nine large dragons, with a background of waves and clouds. One interesting thing my guide pointed out was that all the dragons had only 4 claws instead of 5. Only an Emperor would be allowed to have 5 claws on his Nine-Dragon Wall. A Prince would have to settle for 4.

The wall is a short walk from Huayan Temple, so it makes sense to visit these 2 sights at the same time. Along the walk there are lots of shops and restaurants and opposite the wall is the newly-built reconstruction of Zhou Gui’s palace (on a much much smaller scale) which when open will be a cultural venue for shows and performances.