Ruins of Datong

Datong, located in northern Shanxi Province, China, was since ancient times, an important node of enterprise and exchange on the Silk Road between China and Mongolia.  Beginning in the mid-7^th century CE, it became a centre of Buddhist scholarship and worship as well.  Its library once contained the entire Chinese Buddhist canon carved on over eighty thousand wood blocks for printing.  Its grottoes still contain over 50,000 carved images of the Buddha.  Datong was sacked and destroyed in 1649 in the violence that led to the collapse of the Ming dynasty.