Nine-Dragon Wall

The Datong Nine-Dragon Wall (Jiulongbi) is the oldest, largest, and most artistically celebrated of the three great Nine-Dragon Walls surviving in China, and one of the most iconic monuments of the Ming dynasty in northern China. Originally built as the spirit screen (zhaobi) — the freestanding wall that faces the main gate of an important building — of the palace of Zhu Gui, the thirteenth son of the Hongwu Emperor and the Prince of Dai, the wall has outlasted the palace itself by centuries and now stands as a freestanding monument within the Datong Ancient City.

The wall is a long, rectangular structure faced entirely with brilliantly colored glazed ceramic tiles, arranged to depict nine dragons writhing through clouds and waves in pursuit of the flaming pearl of Buddhist-Daoist iconography. The composition stretches across the entire face of the wall, with each dragon rendered in a different posture and color — yellow, blue, purple, white — against a background of cloud scrolls, wave patterns, and rocky outcrops. The colors, produced by traditional lead glazes, have remained remarkably vivid over the more than six centuries since the wall was built.

The structure is divided into three horizontal zones, in the classic Chinese spirit-screen format. The base is a carved stone "Sumeru throne" — the lotus-and-foreign-beast pedestal form borrowed from Buddhist architecture — ornamented with rows of lions, tigers, deer, horses, and qilin. The central body, the dragons themselves, is framed above and below by carved glazed-wood-imitation cornices and brackets. The crowning roof, with its ridge ornaments and end-beasts, completes the silhouette.

What makes the Datong Nine-Dragon Wall particularly significant is its combination of scale, age, and craftsmanship. It predates the better-known Nine-Dragon Wall in Beijing's Forbidden City and the one in Beijing's Beihai Park, and its carving and glazing are widely considered the most accomplished of the three. For travelers, the wall is a brief but essential stop on a walking tour of the Datong Ancient City, easily paired with Huayan Temple, Shanhua Temple, and the Drum Tower. The best time to photograph the dragons is mid-morning, when sunlight hits the wall face directly.