BEIJING (INP): Located in northern Shanxi province at the junction of Shanxi province, Hebei province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as second largest of Shanxi province, Datong has become the face of ancient Chinese civilization and traditions with magnificent values. During the recent visit of foreign media delegation to the beautiful province, it was learned that Datong consists of 4 districts and 6 counties, one national level economic and technological zone and 6 provincial level economic and technological zones. Covering an area of 14,200 square kilometers, it has a population of 3.1 million. Datong is a communication hub connecting northwest China, northern China and central China. As a national regional city, Datong is the gateway city of Shanxi connecting with the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and integrating into the Circum-Bohai Sea Economic Zone. Datong is one of the first group of 24 historic and ancient cities of China, one of the ten ancient cities of China. Datong was awarded National Nee Energy Model City, top tourist city of China, national garden city, national comprehensive transport hub city, sculpture capital of China, top 10 sports and Leisure City of China.

It has 100,000 years of human civilization history, 2,300 years of recorded history, 1,700 years of city history and 412 years of history as a capital city. Datong experienced its golden age in the ancient period as the capital city of the northern Wei dynasty as the western capital of the Liao and Jin dynasties. From time immemorial, the forefathers of different nationalities have lived on this land creating a profound ancient culture and magnificent historic and culture relics. As one of the three Buddhist cave temples in China and world cultural heritage site, the Yungang Grottoes constitute a classical masterpiece sculpture art. As one of the five famous mountain of China, Mt Hengshan has been a famous place for Taosim since ancient times. Datong ancient city has a combination of the essential historical sites and cultural relics from the Liao, Jin , Yuan ,Ming and Qing dynasties, such as the Huayan temple and Shanhua temple of the Liao and Jin dynasties and nine dragon wall of the Ming dynasty. Located between the inner and outer Great wall, Datong is regarded as a great Wall Museum with 493 kilometers Great Wall stretching within the region.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP) — Pak-China