Nine-Dragon Wall Datong
The Nine Dragon Screen Datong, is the oldest and largest screen wall in China, another two similar walls are from Beihai Park and Forbidden City of Beijing.
The screen wall was built over 600 years ago, by the first Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of Ming Dynasty. He built this for his thirteenth son who lived in Datong at that period. The wall itself is made up of 426 specially-fired glazed bricks; it is 45.5 meters long, 8 meters high and 22 meters thick. This marvelous wall can be divided into three parts, the pedestal, body and roof.
The whole wall was built on a 2.09-meter pedestal, on which carved dozens of lively animals, like cattle, horses, sheep, deer, rabbits which showcasing the carving skill of ancient China.
The design of the body is that of a green wave on the lower part and a blue and yellow cloud on the upper part. The nine dragons, each playing with a pearl with the sun and moon aside, were carved in lifelike manner. The dragons are in yellow, blue, purple and white colors; and the left space on the body of wall are of mountains, rivers, and trees which make the dragons stand out. And the roof is covered with glazed tiles.
There is a pond with stone bridge located in front of the screen. And it is really worth 0.5 hour’s visit to admire the enchanting wall. The best time is from June to October due to the weather reason in Datong city.
