Nine-Dragon Screen

(Image source: www.shanxichina.gov.cn)

This attraction is situated in the Yanghe Street of Datong urban area in Shanxi province. It was built in the late Hongwu years of the Ming Dynasty as a glazed screen wall facing the gate in front of Daiwang Mansion of Zhu Gui. The 13th son of Emperor Zhu Yuan-zhang, who also founded the Ming Dynasty, commenced the construction of the screen which has a history of more than 600 years.

The screen is 8m high, 2.02m thick and 45.5m long. Nine flying dragons are uniformly and harmoniously distributed on the screen, the patterns of sun and moon are distributed on both sides. The screen surface is formed with 426 purposely made colorful glazed tiles by splicing. The nine magnificent dragons appear vividly on the screen in a flying posture. On June 25, 2001, the Datong Nine-Dragon Screen was approved to be listed in the fifth batch of national protected key historic site by the State Council.