{"id":1052,"date":"2012-05-29T09:47:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T14:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:24:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T20:24:03","slug":"tourism-in-datong-of-all-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2012\/05\/29\/tourism-in-datong-of-all-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism in Datong — of all places"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guess what?<\/p>\n

On the way in to Datong, my guide pointed out the new buildings on the far side of the river, which included the government center, apartment buildings, and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0She noted that the government decided to move away from the older area of the city to foster tourism, and prepare for the day when the coal mines, the\u00a0 backbone of the local economy,\u00a0\u00a0give out. Somebody must be reading my blog!<\/p>\n

The question I had, however, was\u2014what does Datong have that would attract tourists?\u00a0 Of course, it has (like everywhere in China), at least 2,000 years of history, but what\u2019s left?\u00a0\u00a0And what will attract people to come here?\u00a0\u00a0That was the quest for today.<\/p>\n

My conclusion is that if it\u2019s your first trip to China, and you have two or three weeks, Datong is not likely to be on your list.\u00a0\u00a0But in the name of fairness, let me tell you about the attractions of the city and area, which, if it doesn\u2019t sway you to put Datong on that first trip list, might encourage a visit sometime;\u00a0 bear in mind, it took 22 years of China visits before I found my way here.\u00a0\u00a0After all, it has a well-known coal mine museum (which I skipped), and used to build locomotives (and thus had a locomotive museum for a long time\u2014it\u2019s now in Beijing.)<\/p>\n

Datong historically has had two brief flirtations with fame, both involving dynasties beyond the wall.\u00a0\u00a0The first was the Northern Wei dynasty, which \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>for nearly a hundred years made Datong its capital.\u00a0 \u00a0Notice, the brief flirtation can last 100 years.\u00a0\u00a0Part of that imperial presence led to probably Datong\u2019s greatest attraction (unless you\u2019re a\u00a0\u00a0coal mine devotee),which are the Yungang caves. With about 51,000 statues in 49 grottoes, the sheer number alone should be reason to visit this world heritage site.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, the statues were carved in sandstone, so erosion has been a problem that the Chinese government has addressed \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>partly by enclosing the most attractive treasures (and that not so coincidentally keeps the coal smoke out).\u00a0\u00a0The big statues (some are 60 feet high) are stunning, some of them with the original colors. My guide pointed out that in this early period the Buddhas still had Indian characteristics, though some of the \u201ctwo Buddha caves\u201d had Buddha heads that looked suspiciously like the Northern Wei emperor and his mom, under whose sponsorship the caves were built; one large statue was carved honoring one of the Wei emperors who tried to eradicate Buddhism\u2014posthumously, of course. With the move to Luoyang in 492, the cave carving petered out, and eventually stopped.\u00a0\u00a0We visited 20 of the 49 grottoes; I went on to another 19, and there was only one where I stopped to take a picture.<\/p>\n

From the sublime to \u201cover the top.\u201d\u00a0 In line with the \u201ccreation\u201d of a tourist \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

base, the Datong government has recreated a \u201cNorthern Wei\u201d palace that has buildings and figures resembling those in the caves, and a \u201cnew old\u201d city on the way out, full of merchants offering mostly the same merchandise you see everywhere in China.\u00a0 It is becoming a pattern in China.\u00a0\u00a0Get ’em in and keep ’em shopping.\u00a0\u00a0I was the only westerner there this morning.<\/p>\n

The second flirtation with fame that redounds to Datong\u2019s reputation was the Liao period, the 12th<\/sup> century, when Datong was a first-tier second-tier city, below the capital.\u00a0\u00a0It enjoyed imperial blessing again, which led to serious \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>temple building, with a very distinctive art form.\u00a0\u00a0Many of the buildings have been destroyed over the years, but a restoration under the Ming\/Qing rulers kept some of them intact\u2014and since the 1990s, many more have been reconstructed.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between the old and the \u201cnew old.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third claim to fame is based on its location.\u00a0\u00a0As my guide proudly stated, Datong is the only major Chinese city between the Great Wall to keep the northern barbarians out and the inner wall to keep the Chinese in.\u00a0\u00a0As a border station, it was important in the Han dynasty (there is a portion of the Han Great Wall here) and the Ming Great Wall (which is in the process of being rebuilt).\u00a0\u00a0In fact, there is a major effort by the new mayor to create a new old city, which is already underway.\u00a0\u00a0There is a nine-dragon wall that used to be in front of the Ming governor\u2019s palace in the early Ming \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>period.<\/p>\n

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The governor could have a dragon wall because he was the thirteenth son of the Emperor.\u00a0\u00a0The wall was moved to a former temple when the palace was torn down years ago, but the wooden frame of its replacement is underway, in a swath of buildings cleared to make the \u201cnew old\u201d city.<\/p>\n

The new mayor might not have said, \u201cIf you build it, they will come,\u201d but he is banking Datong\u2019s future on its past.<\/p>\n

Have you moved it higher on your bucket list?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guess what? On the way in to Datong, my guide pointed out the new buildings on the far side of the river, which included the government center, apartment buildings, and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0She noted that the government decided to move away from the older area of the city to foster tourism, and prepare for the day … Continue reading “Tourism in Datong — of all places”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-last-trip-in-china-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9425,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions\/9425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}