Nine Dragon Screen

Nine Dragon Screen is sited in Heyang Street in downtown Datong. It is a type of screen wall with reliefs of nine different Chinese dragons. Such walls are typically found in imperial Chinese palaces and gardens. Screen wall is Han Chinese traditional architecture wall in a mansion for blocking the line of sight, not only to protect privacy, but also to showing auspicious blessing.Built over 600 years ago, it has been well preserved and remains intact to this day which is three times larger than the one in Forbidden City, Beijing. According to the historical record, it was built for the Prince Hongwu, the 13th son of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). It is made up of 426 specially-fired colorful glazed bricks, with 8 meters high, 2 meters thick and 46 meters long. The screen can be divided in to three parts, the pedestal, body and roof. These dragons only have four toes on their feet, since five-toed dragons were reserved for the Emperor himself. The best visiting time is in the morning with about 1-1.5 hours, when the sun rises, the Nine Dragon Screen coated with a layer of dazzling brilliance, as if the real dragon reappearance.