town walls

Datong City has a long history. As early as it was the capital of Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty, it had already built a large-scale city. 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.

town walls

Datong ancient city wall was built on the old earthen city wall of Yuan Dynasty in 1372, which is quite famous in the whole country. The total perimeter of Datong city wall is 7270.7 meters, which is a square city.

In February 2020, in order to pay tribute to the medical workers fighting in the front line of anti epidemic, Datong ancient city wall scenic area will be free of admission to medical workers from the date of resumption of operation to December 31, 2020.

introduce

The wall is rammed with "Sanhe earth" and covered with bricks. It is about 14 meters high, 2 meters higher than Xi'an ancient city wall, 16.6 meters wider at the widest place, and 6.6 meters wider than Nanjing ancient city wall. There are 62 gatehouses, turrets and watchtowers on the city wall. There are four gate towers, among which the South Gate Tower is the most majestic. It is a three storey tower with a width of 61 meters and a depth of 23.35 meters. There are four turrets standing at the four corners of the city wall, especially the northwest turret, which is octagonal and is called qianlou. Among the 54 watchtowers, hongzilou is the most, which is rare in other ancient city walls. At the same time, there are 96 nests. About 40 meters away from the wall, there is a moat, 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep. There is an urn outside the fourth gate, with a construction area of about 17600 square meters. The moon city was built outside the urn city. The urn city was surrounded by a gate. In this way, access to Datong City through three gate cards. There are also "arrow tower" or "plaque tower" on each door.

history

The existing Datong city wall was built in 1372, the fifth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty. General Xu Da was ordered to build a new city based on the old cities of Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties. It is slightly square, 1.8 km long from east to west, 1.82 km long from north to south, 7.24 km long from circumference, and 3.28 square km in area. The city walls are all based on regular and systematic stone strips, slabs and stonework. On the basis of the original city walls, they are rammed with "sanhetu" and wrapped with green bricks. The wall is 14 meters high, 12 meters wide at the top and 18 meters wide at the bottom. 54 watchtowers and 96 bunkers were built around the city wall. There are 580 pairs of buttresses on the four walls, representing the number of villages under the jurisdiction of Datong at that time. There are turrets at the four corners of the city wall, and a control platform outside each pier. The city has four gates, East Heyang gate, South Yongtai gate, West Qingyuan gate and North Wuding gate. On top of the four gates are city towers, with moon tower, arrow tower, watchtower and corner tower standing at intervals. Outside the four gates, there are urn City, moon city and moat. The city wall is tall and majestic, solid and precipitous, with strict defense and complete defense facilities. It is a famous city with its own characteristics in the history of ancient military architecture in China. Because it occupies a very important position in the northern border defense, it plays an important role in many battles. Therefore, it has always enjoyed the reputation of "majestic town" and "northern key".

In the sixth year of the reign of emperor Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty, Datong city suffered serious damage. The Ming general Jiang Xiang first threw himself into the Qing Dynasty, and then rebelled. Duoergun led his army to attack Datong, which lasted for nine months. Later, Yang Zhenwei, a subordinate of Jiang Xiang, defected to the enemy because of the shortage of ammunition and food in the city. He killed Jiang Xiang and put duoergun into the city. After entering the city, in order to vent his anger, Dorgon ordered "slaughtering the city" and cut off the city wall by five feet. Since then, the Datong city wall has lost its former glory.

In 2008, Datong City fully implemented the historical and cultural revival and ancient city protection project, and repaired 70% of the ancient city walls with bricks. At present, the east wall and south wall have been restored according to the regulations of Datong City in Ming Dynasty, and are open to tourists. After the restoration, the east city wall is built with urn, moon city, suspension bridge, moat, one tower, one moon tower, one arrow tower and 12 watchtower. The south wall not only restored the urn City, the moon city, but also the Guancheng city and the dongxier city. On the city wall, there are 10 ancient buildings, such as city tower, Wenchang Pavilion and arrow tower, 12 watchtowers and 1 turret. The restored ancient city wall is magnificent, especially when the night falls and the lights begin to shine. The night scene of the ancient city is particularly charming. The colorful lights make the ancient city wall pavilions beautiful and the outline of the great bank more attractive.

Before repair

The Datong city wall is tall, solid and exquisite, but it has gone through war; due to historical, natural and man-made reasons, it has been damaged, with few bricks, but most of the rammed earth walls are well preserved

1. There is no gate, urn and moon city, but rammed earth wall

2. Among them, the south gate was demolished in the 1950s, but the plan to repair the south gate was not implemented in the 1950s, and the moat was full of houses.

3. There are few remains of the brick wall in the southeast and northwest, but there are almost no watchholes and crenels.

4. The well preserved section of the city wall: except for the gate position and two intersections of the east wall, the rammed earth wall is well preserved; except for the gate position and two intersections of the north wall, the six horse faces of the watchtower in the east section are well preserved, five of the six horse faces of the south wall are well preserved; except for the south gate and a small part of the south section of the fifth middle school, the rammed earth remains of the south wall are in good condition, among which the south wall of the east wall to the huichu control platform are well preserved Well, there are foundations and bricks at the bottom. The west wall is seriously damaged. The north section of the gate of the west wall is well preserved, and part of the south section of the west wall remains.

5. There are 10 horse faces on each side of the original city wall. There are 6 relatively complete horse faces on the north side, 7 on the east side, 2 relatively complete and 2 incomplete on the south side, and 1 on the west side. Many foundations still exist in the process of restoration

6. More than 70 percent of the Ming city walls are preserved in the main city.

7. Datong ancient city wall and North Town, Nanguan, east town. The existing wall of the North small town; the South small town is seriously damaged, and the East small town has no remains, of which the North small town is well preserved, the southernmost wall of the South small town, the rammed earth wall on the south side of Dayou square on the east side, about 80 meters, was demolished by the developer in 2016. There are still remains in Luxi.

Restoration of the city wall

The east city wall was restored (with bricks wrapped outside the rammed earth wall) with a length of 1800 meters and a height of 12 meters. East Gate urn city and moon city, built on a gatehouse, an arrow tower, a moon tower. The wall of the urn is 700 meters long and 12 meters high, and the tower is 28.5 meters high. Completed in December 2009.

Taking the urn city as the center, looking at the north and south sides, the city wall has six prominent parts, commonly known as the city wall crenels. Each crenels above each built a wooden tower, called watchtower. It is understood that as far as the structure of the city wall is concerned, adding crenels will increase the rigidity of the wall. From the perspective of military fortification, it will also increase many defensive capabilities such as surveillance and coordination, side shooting and attacking the enemy who ascends the city. With the crenels of the city wall, the modeling beauty and rhythm sense of the city wall are increased, making the modeling of the city wall more magnificent. The buttresses of Datong City Wall protrude from the wall of the city for 13-15 meters, and the width is generally 17-25 meters. The distance between the buttresses is 96-115 meters.

Turn to the north and south ends of the east city wall, that is, the southeast corner and northeast corner of the ancient city wall, there are also corner buttresses. The battlements in the corner of the city are slightly larger than those in the main body of the city wall. On top of them are two turrets, which are slightly larger than the watchtower.

In addition, apart from the two battlements at the corner of the city, a "control platform" of 12.5 × 12.5 meters was built. The control platform is surrounded by brickwork, which is the same height as the city wall and connected with a wooden bridge. This is a special shape of the Datong city wall.

Traffic information

Self driving: 1. Beijing direction: Jingda Expressway - the exit of Yuhe West Road in Datong - heyangnei Street - dongchengqiang ticket office. 2. Taiyuan direction: Dayun Expressway - exit of Yuhe West Road in Datong - heyangnei Street - ticket office of Dongcheng wall. (you can reach four entrances along the inner street of the city wall)

Bus: (south city wall) take bus No.35 to jiaochangjiekou station or yongtaimen station on Yongtai Road, (East city wall) take bus No.38, 27, 59 to heyangmen north or heyangmen south station, (north city wall) take bus No.35 to Wudingmen station, (west city wall) take bus No.4, 6, 23, 27, 28, 38 to Qingyuan West Street station, and take bus No.2, 4, 11, 15, 18, 26, 601, 603 Get off at Qingyuan JIEKOU station on Weidu Avenue.

Tourism information

Opening Hours

Peak season (April October) 8:00-21:30 (stop selling tickets at 21:30);

Off season (November March) 8:00-20:30 (stop selling tickets at 20:30);

Ticket Price

Free visit with ID card

Half ticket object

1. Children over 1.2m in height;

2. Full time students (with student card);

3. Aged 60-69 (with ID card or senior citizen card)

Free ticket object

1. Height 1.2m and below

Chinese PinYin : Da Tong Gu Cheng Qiang