Yungang: Three Campaigns of Cutting
The Yungang caves read as a sequence rather than a collection: five colossal figures under imperial order, paired halls of the 470s and 480s, then a long tail of privately paid caves that stopped in 525.
Datong.
Datong lies in the basin of northern Shanxi, where the Northern Wei court held its capital in the fifth century, then called Pingcheng. The record of the first cave temples places them in the rock at Wuzhou Pass west of that capital, and the grottoes still stand sixteen kilometres west of the modern city. The town that replaced it was a Ming garrison on the northern frontier. Its wall was enlarged in 1372 by the general Xu Da on the foundations of the Liao, Jin and Yuan city, and the circuit measures 7,270.7 metres. The brick facing was stripped in the 1950s; the city rebuilt the wall from 2008 and closed the circuit again in November 2016.
Datong
Huayan Temple and the Architecture of the Liao Dynasty
Datong's Huayan Temple holds the largest surviving Buddha hall in China; the article reads its frame from the eave brackets down, then turns to the hall that kept the monastery's books.
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Shanhua Temple: A Hall Rebuilt After Fire
A fire set during a siege in 1122 and fourteen years of rebuilding from 1128 shaped Shanhua Temple: one Liao hall, three Jin buildings, a gate that is the largest of its dynasty, and Qing murals.
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The Hanging Temple on a Cliff at Hunyuan
A temple carried on beams set into a recessed cliff at Hunyuan: what the rock does for the buildings, how twenty-seven crossbeams take the load, and why its founding date is still argued.
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Mount Heng: One of the Five Sacred Mountains
The northern peak of the Five Great Mountains: how a mountain is ranked by sacrifice rather than by scenery, where its Han-dynasty shrine stood, and why the rites moved to Quyang.
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A Nine-Dragon Wall Made of Glazed Tile
The screen wall of a Ming prince's mansion on Heyang Street: nine four-clawed dragons in relief, 45.5 metres long, moved twenty-eight metres in 1954 and still the oldest of its kind.
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The Walls of Datong and the Town Inside Them
The Ming garrison wall of Datong: its length, its four gates, the siege of 1649, the demolition of the 1950s, and the rebuilding that closed the circuit again in 2016.
ReadPlaces
Yungang Grottoes
A kilometre of cliff sixteen kilometres west of Datong, cut with more than fifty cave temples and some 51,000 figures between the 460s and 525, and a World Heritage Site since 2001.
Huayan Temple
A first-batch national protected temple in the old city of Datong, one of the national key Buddhist temples of the Han region, holding the largest surviving Buddha hall in China.
Shanhua Temple
A Tang-founded temple inside the south gate of Datong, keeping one Liao hall and three Jin buildings and the largest surviving Jin temple gate in China.
Hanging Temple
Forty halls and pavilions fixed to a recessed cliff face above the valley in Hunyuan County, seventy-five metres above the ground and held by beams set into the rock.
Mount Heng
The northern mountain of the Five Great Mountains, a Daoist sacred peak in Hunyuan with a Han-dynasty shrine to the mountain god on its slopes and no hotels on the mountain.
Nine Dragon Wall
The screen wall of a Ming prince's residence on Heyang Street: 45.5 metres of dragons in four claws, built in the 1390s and the earliest and largest wall of its kind in China.
Datong City Wall
The Ming wall of Datong, 7,270.7 metres round and about fourteen metres high, stripped of its brick in the 1950s and rebuilt on the old line between 2008 and 2016.
Photo credits and rights
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The entrance courtyard and gate of the Yungang Grottoes.Marcin Białek / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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A hall front at Huayan Temple hung with red lanterns.Ganwumao / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The Puxian Pavilion plaque at Shanhua Temple, Datong.JL Cogburn / CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC BY-SA 2.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The Hanging Temple pinned to the Hengshan cliff, seen from below.Romain Pontida / CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC BY-SA 2.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Mount Heng seen across the Hunyuan valley from the river bridge.Zhangzhugang / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Glazed dragons on the Nine Dragon Wall, Datong.Zhangzhugang / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The rebuilt Datong wall above its moat and gardens.xiquinhosilva / CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
