Datong History
		Datong has other names like Pingcheng, Yun Zhou, Xijing and Phoenix City. It is situated in Yanbei, Shanxi Province. Holding the Great Wall inner and outer, it is the important city in north China. As far as in the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age of one hundred thousand years ago, our ancestors had already lived on both sides of Datong Basin and on the plain of both sides of the Sanggan River. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Beidi nationality lived in Datong. In the Warring States Period, Datong belonged to Yanmen Prefecture of the Zhao State. In the Han Dynasty, the Pingcheng County was established here. In the fourth century, Tuo Ba Gui of the Xian Bei nationality established the Northern Wei Regime in north China. In the first year of Tian Xing (398), King Dao Wu of Wei, Tuo Ba Gui shifted the capital to Pingcheng (Datong today). From then on up to the time when King Xiao Wen shifted capital to Luoyang, Datong remained capital of Northern Wei Regime for nearly 100 years. After that, the dynasties of Liao and Jing made Datong as alternative capital-called "Xijing" for 200 years. Zhu Yuan Zhang, the First Emperor of the Ming Dynasty granted his thirteenth son, Prince Dai to guard the Datong City. During that time, Datong was the important city on far-off border of the Great Wall. Datong, a hub of communications between three provinces of Jin, Ji and Inner Mongolia, has been an important city of military strategy since ancient time.