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.
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Datong
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.