Mary Ma,
I would like to personally thank you for your having chosen Mr. Li - our driver in Datong and Reina - our tour guide in Datong who were helpful and knowledgable. They took great care of me and my wife on our just ended short tour to Datong. They had a strong sense of punctuality. They fully understood what we wanted was. We found them extremely polite, curteuous. They are an asset to your company. The historic Datong is beyond our expectation! The Yungang Grottoes and Yingxian Wooden Pagoda are world class cultural heritage. It is a shame that the publicity of Datong is so limited. If not introduced by your tour company, Datong would never have been included in our China trip this time. Thanks! I will introduce Datong to my colleagues and friends future in f. Keep in touch!
Margaret and Robert
Located in the north of Shanxi Province, Datong is one of the famous historical and cultural cities in our country, and it was the capital of Beiwei State more than 1,500 years ago. Now it is an energy resources and heavy chemical base in our country, and abundant in coal especially, so it is also called “coal city”. The main sights in Datong are Mt. Heng, Yungang Grotto, Hanging Temple in Mt. Heng, “Yingxian ”Wooden Tower, Nine-dragon Wall, Huayan Temple, Shanhua Temple, etc. Because it is very cold in winter and rather cool in summer, Datong it a good place in summer. Spring and summer are the best seasons for traveling.
Located in Hunyuan Country of Shanxi Province in Northern China, Mt. Hengshan is one of the five mythical mountains of China. It is sometimes known as the Northern Hengshan and should not confused with the Southern Hengshan in Hunan Province.
As one of the three grottoes in China, the Yungang grottoes are considered the first among equals, for their tremendous size, their ancient history and their relatively complete state of presenvation. In 2001 the stie was listed as a World Cultual Heritage Site.
There are three nine-dragon walls in Datong, and the Datong nine-dragon wall is the biggest and oldest of its kinds. Built in 1392, the Nine-Dragon Wall in Datong was built as a screen wall to go in front of the mansion of the 13rd son of the first Emperor of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang
Hanging Monastery is an architectural wonder because it hangs on the west cliff of Jinxia Gorge more than 50 meters above the ground. Opposite to the Mt. Hengshan, the hanging monastery consisted of over 40 buildings, are evenly distributed and well-balanced in height.
Huanyan Temple, located in the southwest of Datong City, is one of the biggest temples in China built in Liao Dynasty. It got its name because it was and remains a major temple of the Huayan sect, a sub-category of the Buddhism popular in north China.
Also named Southern Temple as it lies the south gate of Datong City in Shanxi Province. Shanhua Temple was originally founded during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) but it was destroyed by war at the end of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125). During the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) it was rebuilt on a large scale.
The real name of the Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian Country is the Sakyamuni Pagoda. Situated in western Yingxian coutry, the tower is 70 kilometers away from Datong. It is shaped in an octagon and is 67.13 meters high and 30 meters in diameter at the bottom.
