Datong City Wall

As early as the capital of Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty, a large-scale city had been built. In the early Ming Dynasty, because it was the Pingfan in the capital, the military position was very dangerous. Therefore, in 1372, the General Xu Da built on the old city, forming the Datong town that people see today. The finished Datong town is roughly square. Although the Datong city wall is tall and strong, with exquisite architecture, it has been greatly damaged due to war, history, nature and man-made reasons. Few of the existing city walls are well preserved, most of them are only broken walls. There are four well preserved sections of the city wall: the four corners of the city wall, and the northeast corner is the best preserved section of the city. In fact, in the final analysis, the ancient city walls are all newly built, but they can still get a panoramic view of Datong.

Datong City Wall

Datong ancient city wall is a national AAAA scenic spot and a provincial key cultural relics protection unit. Located in the downtown area of Datong. It is a relatively complete ancient city wall building in China. Datong City has a long history of construction. As early as it was the capital of Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty, it had already built a large-scale city.

The existing city walls were built in the fifth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty on the basis of the old cities of Han, Wei, Tang, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties by Xu Da, the great general of Ming Dynasty. At the same time, it also has a series of military facilities, such as moat, suspension bridge, city tower, arrow tower, moon tower, qianlou, watchtower, turret and control platform. It is a relatively complete ancient city wall building in China. In 2008, the rammed earth wall remains of the ancient city wall were well restored. The 70% rammed earth city wall will be repaired with bricks as a whole! Due to Liang Sicheng's complete surveying and mapping data of Datong City building, detailed photos and documents, as well as the remains of the wall foundation, stone, horse face foundation, brick wall and so on, which provide a detailed basis for the restoration, the authenticity of the building is ensured, and the restored Datong City wall is magnificent.

All round opening up

The people's Government of Datong City has decided to cancel the ticket charging system of Datong ancient city wall and open it to all tourists at home and abroad. From September 1, 2016: spring and Autumn: 6:00-24:00, summer: 5:00-2:00, winter: 7:00-22:00. Open area: Datong ancient city wall (including moat, ring wall belt park).

In the early Ming Dynasty, because it was the Pingfan in the capital, the military position was very dangerous. Therefore, in 1372, the General Xu Da built on the old city, forming the Datong town that people see today. The finished Datong Zhencheng is roughly square, with a side length of 1.8 km and 1.82 km, a perimeter of 7.4 km, and an area of 3.28 square km. It is based on huge stones. The inner core of the city wall is rammed with triad clay, and each piece of green brick weighing 17 Jin is wrapped. The city wall is 14 meters high, and brick stacks with a length of 5 meters, a height of 0.8 meters, and a thickness of 0.5 meters are built on the wall. The distance between the stacks is 0.5 meters, with a total of 580 pairs of crenels, which is said to represent the construction of Datong Zhencheng The number of villages under the jurisdiction of Datong at that time was analyzed. Datong town has four gates: East Heyang gate, South Yongtai gate, West Qing Yuanmen gate and North Wuding gate. Each gate has its own urn. The gate was demolished in modern times.

Under Xu Da's careful planning and strict supervision, the architecture of Datong City has reached the most exquisite level ever: a turret is built at the four corners of the city wall, and a "dry tower" is built at the northwest corner, which is one of the "Eight Sights of Datong". Around the city wall stands 54 watchtowers and 96 bunkers. Outside the city wall, the horse faces are alternately convex and concave, arranged in an orderly manner. There are 12 buttresses on each side of the city wall and 4 corner piers on each side. The distance between piers is 113m, and the piers are of trapezoidal structure. A control platform is built outside the four corner piers, 16.6 meters wide, 15 meters long, 6.6 meters away from the corner piers, and the upper platform is connected with the city wall. Outside the four gates is the urn city. The entrance of the gate of the urn city is about 30 meters deep, and the arrow tower or plaque tower is built on it. The moat on the outside of the city wall is about 5 meters deep and 10 meters wide. It is commonly known as the moat. Once there were ripples and suspension bridges on it. There are 4 streets, 8 alleys and 72 Mianmian alleys in the city. At the crossroads in the middle of each street, there is a first floor, Taiping tower in the East, Drum Tower in the south, bell tower in the West and Kuixing tower in the north. There are four exquisite archways in the center of the city, called the fourth archway. Nowadays, most of these buildings are destroyed in modern times. Only the drum tower stands in the middle of the street, and "Sipailou" has only become a name. Its nearby area is the most prosperous commercial center in Datong City. According to the historical records we can see today, Datong City has a unique phenomenon. It is not a single square fortress like city. The pattern of Datong City is composed of four parts: the main part is a tall and solid town. Outside the south, East and North walls of the town, there are also a self-contained quadrilateral Town, which are called South Town, East Town and playground town Each town also has its own urn and moon city, which are less than 200 meters away from the town and connected with the main city by suspension bridge. In this way, if you want to enter the town of Datong, you must first pass through one of the three small cities, and you need to pass through at least four to six gates. Even if you enter the small city outside, the suspension bridge in the main city will not be put down actively, and you still can't enter the town of Datong. This kind of defensive measure makes the town of Datong a solid and safe place, and a famous city with characteristics in ancient Chinese military architecture. Because of the folklore of Datong, this place is the place where the Phoenix landed, so the orderly arrangement of the four cities is called "the Phoenix spreads its wings alone". There are no remains in the East Town, while there are still remains in the South Town.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in the Ming Dynasty, Datong was famous as a military town. Because it occupies a very important position in the northern border defense, it has played an important role in many military struggles, that is, the so-called "Ping Quan Jin and Gong Shen Jing". In addition, it is rare in the history of urban defense construction in ancient China for its tight defense, solid facilities and tall buildings. Prisoner here, has been enjoying the "majestic town" and "northern key" reputation.

[city wall construction] in the second year of the Ming Dynasty (1369 A.D.), Chang Yuchun, a famous general and Deputy General of the Ming Dynasty, led Guo Ying, Tang He, Geng Bingyi, Wang xingzu, Chen De, Xie Cheng and Guo Zixing to attack Datong. At that time, the right Prime Minister of the Yuan Dynasty in Datong, gaikuo tiemu'er, went straight to Gansu when he heard the wind. The General Zhu Zhen also left the city in a hurry and fled, making Datong defeated without fighting. From then on, Datong was incorporated into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, from the day of its birth in the Ming Dynasty, Mongolia in the Northern Yuan Dynasty became its northern confidant. The nobles of Yuan nationality and other Mongolian nomadic tribes in Beiwan invaded frequently, forcing the Ming Dynasty to set up nine important border towns along the border of the Great Wall from Yalu River in the east to Jiayuguan in the West. Datong is one of the nine sides. Therefore, Datong Prefecture is also called Datong town.

In the fifth year of Hongwu (1372 AD), General Xu Dadu led the army and people to build Datong City on the basis of Liao, Jin and Yuan Tu city. The regulation of Datong town is convenient for this.

At this time, the town of Datong was slightly square, about 1.5 kilometers long from east to west, 1.75 kilometers long from north to south, 6.5 kilometers long from circumference, and covering an area of about 2.63 square kilometers. The Datong city wall was built in a tall and majestic, solid and precipitous way, with all kinds of city defense facilities, forming its own defense system. All the walls are based on regular stone strips, slabs, stonework and stone columns. The walls are rammed with "sanhetu" section by section and layer by layer, and the periphery is built with green bricks. There are three kinds of green bricks, large, medium and small, which are selected according to different parts. According to the actual investigation, medium-sized city bricks are generally about 40 cm long, 20 cm wide, 10 cm thick, and weigh about 18 kg, which is seven times the weight of modern commonly used bricks. From this we can imagine the arduous construction of the city in those years. The wall of Datong is about 14 meters high, and the widest part is about 16.6 meters. The main wall of the main wall is about 12 meters high, and the buttress wall (also known as the women's wall) is about 2 meters high. On top of the wall, brick stacks are built, about 0.8 meters high, about 0.5 meters thick and about 5 meters long. The distance between the stacks is about 0.5 meters. Between the stacks is called the crenels, which are the lookout holes and shooting ports of the guards, so that they can better conceal themselves and attack each other. It is said that there are more than 580 pairs of buttresses in the four walls, representing the number of villages under the jurisdiction of Datong at that time. On the flat wall, there are 62 magnificent gatehouses, turrets and watchtowers. The gate tower, also known as the city tower, has four towers, which are located in the center of the four walls. The plane is in the shape of "convex". The city towers are double eaves, nine ridges and Xieshan roofs. There are pillars around the outside, and the horse road is next to it. Among them, the South Gate Tower is the most spacious and majestic. It is a three story tower with a width of 61 meters and a depth of 23.35 meters. Together with the west gate tower, it is a typical wooden structure building in northern China in the early Ming Dynasty. At the four corners of the city wall, there are four beautiful and exquisite turrets. They can not only observe the enemy's situation and attack the enemy in wartime, but also provide visitors with the magnificent weather and beautiful scenery outside the Great Wall in peacetime. The two are skillfully combined. Among them, the northwest corner building is particularly tall and magnificent. This building is called "qianlou" because it is located in the "Qian" position, the first of the twelve directions of the eight trigrams; it is also called "Zhenlou" because it is the highest Pavilion in the city, and it is also called "Zhenlou" because it is "Zhencheng thing"; it is also called "bajiaolou" because it is octagonal. Because usually visitors often climb up here to have a good view, so it has the reputation of "Zhenlou Qiushuang". When Ming and Qing Dynasties invited many famous scholars to visit this building, they wrote many poems.

In addition, there are five

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