Datong 06.JPG
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 3,105,591 of whom 1,790,452 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of the 2 out 4 urban districts of
Pingcheng Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cens ...
and
Yungang The Yungang Grottoes (), formerly the Wuzhoushan Grottoes (), are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous anc ...
as Yunzhou and Xinrong are not conurbated yet.


History

The area of present-day Datong was close to the state of Dai, which was conquered by the Zhao clan of Jin in 457 BC. It was a frontier land between the agricultural Chinese and the nomads of the
Great Steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also simply called the Great Steppe or the steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Transnistria ...
. The area was well known for its trade in
horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
. The area of present-day Datong eventually came under the control of the Qin dynasty, during which it was known as Pingcheng County (平城县) and formed part of the
Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...
commandery of
Yanmen Yanmen Pass, also known by its Chinese name Yanmenguan and as Xixingguan, is a mountain pass which includes three fortified gatehouses along the Great Wall of China. The area was a strategic choke point in ancient and medieval China, contr ...
. Pingcheng County continued under the Han dynasty, which founded a site within present-day Datong in 200BC following its victory against the Xiongnu nomads at the Battle of Baideng. Located near a pass to Inner Mongolia along the Great Wall, Pingcheng blossomed under Han rule and became a stop-off point for camel caravans moving from China into Mongolia and beyond. It was sacked at the end of the Eastern Han. Pingcheng became the capital of the Xianbei-founded
Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Northern dynasties ...
dynasty from AD398–494. The Yungang Grottoes were constructed during the later part of this period (460–494). During the mid to late 520s, Pingcheng was the seat of Northern Wei's Dai Commandery.. During the Tang dynasty, Datong became the seat of the Tang prefecture of Yunzhou, and the original Guandi temple was built. The city was renamed Datong in 1048. It was the Xijing ("Western Capital") of the Jurchen Jin dynasty prior to being sacked by the Mongols. Datong later came under the control of the Ming dynasty, serving as an important Ming military stronghold against the Mongols to the north. During the Ming period, many of Datong's notable historical structures such as the Drum Tower and the Nine-Dragon Wall were built. Datong was sacked again at the end of the Ming in 1649, but promptly rebuilt in 1652. By 1982 a portion of its city walls remained so it became one of the National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities that year. Prior to 2008, about 100,000 people lived in the old city. In 2008 mayor Geng Yanbo decided to redevelop much of the inner city, with over being redeveloped, and with Geng becoming known as the "Demolition Mayor". Geng and his group anticipated that 30,000 to 50,000 people would remain in the old city. In 2013 Geng left his position. Su Jiede of '' Sixth Tone'' wrote that much of the city was still under construction at the time and that Geng's efforts resulted in "a half-finished city center and a complicated legacy" and that "To critics, the city had spent enormous sums of money without much to show for it." By 2020 the population of the old city was below 30,000 and there were fewer governmental facilities available for the residents. That year Su stated that the old city "still presents a headache for the local government."


Demographics

Su Jiede wrote that since Pingcheng District, which had most of its urbanized area, had 1,105,699 people as of 2020, "Datong is a small city by Chinese standards".


Geography

Datong is the northernmost city of Shanxi, and is located in the Datong Basin, with an administrative area spanning latitude 39° 03'–40° 44' N and longitude 112° 34'–114° 33' E. The urban area is surrounded on three sides by mountains, with passes only to the east and southwest. Within the prefecture-level city elevations generally increase from southeast to northwest. Datong borders Ulanqab ( Inner Mongolia) to the northwest and Zhangjiakou ( Hebei) to the east, Shuozhou (Shanxi) to the southwest, and Xinzhou (Shanxi) to the south. The well-known
Datong Volcanic Arc Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...
lies nearby in the Datong Basin. It is west of Beijing.


Climate

Datong has a continental, monsoon-influenced
steppe climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
( Köppen ''BSk''), influenced by the + elevation, with rather long, cold, very dry winters, and very warm summers. Monthly mean temperatures range from in January to in July; the annual mean temperature is . Due to the aridity and elevation, diurnal temperature variation is often large, averaging annually. There barely is any precipitation during winter, and more than of the annual precipitation occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 54% in July to 66% in October, sunshine is abundant year-round, and the city receives 2,671 hours (about 60% of the possible total) of bright sunshine per year.


Administrative divisions

*Defunct – Kuang District () is largely made up of separate mines throughout the metropolitan area.


Tourism

The Yungang Grottoes are a collection of shallow caves located west of Datong. There are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas within these grottoes, ranging from 4 centimeters to 7 meters tall. Most of these icons are around 1000 years old. Within the city itself, there are a few surviving sites of historical interest such as the Nine-Dragon Wall, the
Huayan Monastery The Huayan or Flower Garland school of Buddhism (, from sa, अवतंसक, Avataṃsaka) is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that first flourished in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). The Huayan worldview is based prima ...
(; ''Huáyán Sì''), and the Shanhua Temple. Further afield is the
Hanging Temple The Hanging Temple, also Hengshan Hanging Temple, Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple () is a temple built into a cliff ( above the ground) near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, China. The closest city is Datong, to ...
built into a cliff face near Mount Heng. Most of the historical sites in this region date to the Tang and Ming dynasties, but the Hanging Temple dates to the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534). The railway locomotive works (see below) began to attract increasing numbers of railway enthusiasts from the 1970s. When the construction of steam locomotives was phased out, the authorities did not want to lose this valuable tourism market, and pondered the possibility of developing a steam railway operating center as an attraction. A number of study visits were undertaken to the East Lancashire Railway at
Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
, and a twinning arrangement was concluded with that town. In 2010, work began on reconstructing the city's 14th century Ming dynasty defensive wall. The controversial reconstruction project was in its final phase at the end of 2014. The documentary ''
The Chinese Mayor ''The Chinese Mayor'' (), original title ''Datong'' (大同), is a 2015 documentary that follows Datong mayor Geng Yanbo's efforts to transform one of the China's most polluted cities into a cultural destination, in large part by displacing 500,0 ...
'' documents two years of vigorous and highly controversial (due to summary demolition of about 200,000 homes) effort by Mayor
Geng Yanbo Geng Yanbo (; born November 1958) is a Chinese politician who served as the mayor of Datong from 2008 to 2013 and the mayor of Taiyuan from 2013 to 2019. Biography Geng was born in Heshun County, Shanxi, in November 1958. He entered the workf ...
to push the reconstruction project forward. File:Xuankongsi.jpg, The
Hanging Temple The Hanging Temple, also Hengshan Hanging Temple, Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple () is a temple built into a cliff ( above the ground) near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, China. The closest city is Datong, to ...
File:Loess landscape china.jpg,
Loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
landscape near
Hunyuan Hunyuan County is a county under the administration of Datong City, in the northeast of Shanxi province, China. History During the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history, present-day Hunyuan County formed part of the Baidi state of D ...
File:Datong 06.JPG, A tower on the City Wall File:Pagoda Huayanmonastery Datong Shanxi.jpg, Pagoda at Huayan Temple File:Datong Huayan Si 2013.08.29 09-37-05.jpg, Huayan Temple File:Datong Yungang Shiku 2013.08.29 14-24-22.jpg, Lingyan Temple at Yungang Grottoes File:Steps leading up to guard tower of Datong City Wall.jpg, Guard house on Datong City Wall


Culture

Datong is known for its
knife-cut noodles Knife-cut noodles ( zh, c=刀削麵, p=dāoxiāomiàn), also known as knife-sliced noodles or knife-shaved noodles in English, are a type of noodle in Chinese cuisine often associated with Shanxi province. As the name implies, unlike pulled noo ...
.


Economy

The GDP per capita was ¥17,852 (US$2,570) per annum in 2008,
ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...
no. 242 among 659 Chinese cities. Coal mining is the dominant industry of Datong. Its history and development are very much linked to this commodity. Development zones Datong Economic and Technological Development Zone Due to its strategic position, it is also an important distribution and warehousing center for Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia. Datong is an old fashioned coal mining city, and still sits on significant reserves of this commodity. Consequently, it has developed a reputation as one of China's most polluted cities. The Datong Coal Mining Group is based here and is China's third largest such enterprise. Datong is indeed however an emerging economy, as the city seeks to loosen its dependence on coal, introduce more environmentally friendly and efficient methods of extraction and move into other areas of business services. The local government has continued to upgrade its pillar coal sector (and related industries like coal chemicals, power and metallurgy), while also developing "substitute industries" such as machinery manufacturing, tourism and distribution, warehousing and logistics services. This has had some impact. Datong's GDP grew by 5.1 percent in 2008 to RMB56.6 billion. While coal will continue to dominate, Datong has been identified as one of the key cities requiring redevelopment, with part of this being in environmental cleanup, rehabilitation and industrial refocusing. Datong is a pilot city for rehabilitation studies following years of pollution. To this end it has already struck up strong relationships with other cities worldwide with similar backgrounds, and has begun plans, for example, to develop a tourism base focused on steam engine technology with antique locomotives to be used along designated tracks. Datong has a large railway locomotive works ' Datong locomotive factory', where the 'Aiming Higher' ( zh, s=前进, p=Qiánjìn) class of steam locomotive was built as late as the 1970s. Steam locomotive production ended in the late 1980s and the plant's main products (as of 2010) is mainline electric locomotives.


Main enterprises

*Datong Coal Mine Group (The third biggest coal-mining enterprise in China) * Datong Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd, (DELC) (The second biggest Elec-Locomotive enterprise in China) *Shanxi Diesel Engine Industries Corporation, Ltd, CNGC *Shanxi Synthetic Rubber Group Co., Ltd, CNCC *GD Power Datong No.2 Power Plant *GD Power Datong Power Generation Co., Ltd *Shanxi Datang International Yungang Co-generation Co., Ltd. *China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Datong Gear CO., LTDchina national heavy duty truck group datong gear co ltd
Dcgroup.com.cn. Retrieved on 25 February 2014.


Transportation

* China National Highway 109 * China National Highway 208 * G55 Erenhot–Guangzhou Expressway *
G5501 Datong Ring Expressway G55 may refer to * Fiat G.55 Centauro, a World War II fighter aircraft * G55 Erenhot–Guangzhou Expressway in China * HMS Lightning (G55) HMS ''Lightning'' was an L-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 22 April 1940 and su ...
*
Datong railway station The Datong railway station () is a railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contras ...
and
Datong South railway station Datongnan (Datong South) railway station is a railway station of Datong–Xi'an high-speed railway and Datong–Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, located in Shuibosi township, Pingcheng District, Datong, Shanxi, China China, officially th ...
*
Datong Yungang Airport Datong Yungang Airport () is an airport serving the city of Datong in Shanxi Province, China. It is located north of the town of Beijiazao in Datong County, 15.2 kilometers from the city center. Construction of Datong Airport began in 2001 wit ...


Education


Colleges and universities

* Datong University ()


Major schools

*
Datong No.1 Middle School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...
() *
Datong No.2 Middle School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...
() *
Datong Locomotive Middle School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cens ...
() *
Datong No.3 Middle School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cens ...
() * BeiYue Middle School () *
Datong Experimental Secondary School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...
() * The No.1 Middle School of DCMG (Datong Coal Mine Group) () *
Datong No.14 Elementary School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cens ...
() *
Datong No.18 Elementary School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...
() *
Datong Experimental Elementary School Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cens ...
()


See also

* List of twin towns and sister cities in China *
Jumenbu Jumenbu (), is a fortress of the Ming Great Wall Shanxi Section, located in Datong city in Shanxi province, China. Jumenbu is a fortress for guarding the Great Wall of China, and it is a part of the Great Wall defence system. Jumenbu is situated ...


References


Citations


Bibliography

* .


Further reading

*Cotterell, Arthur (2008). ''The Imperial Capitals of China: An Inside View of the Celestial Empire''. Pimlico, London. .


External links


The Chinese Mayor
(documentary) on website International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) free to watch as embedded video (hosted on VIMEO) * * {{Authority control Cities in Shanxi Prefecture-level divisions of Shanxi