Datong City, the ancient name of Yunzhong, Pingcheng, Yunzhou, also known as the coal capital of China. It is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Shanxi Province, a type-II large city, the second largest city in Shanxi Province, one of the central cities in China's Jin, Hebei and Mongolia junction area and an important comprehensive energy base, as approved by the State Council. As of 2022, the city has four districts and six counties under its jurisdiction, with a total area of 14,176 square kilometers, a resident population of 3.100 million, an urban population of 2.285 million, and an urbanization rate of 73.7%.
Datong is a key city in the central region and a provincial sub-center city, with geographic coordinates located at 39°54′~40°44′ north latitude and 112°06′~114°33′ east longitude. Datong City is located in North China, the center of Datong Basin in Jinbei, the junction of Jin, Hebei and Mongolia provinces and regions, northeast of the Loess Plateau, is the barrier of the whole of Jin, the gateway to the north, and strangling Jin, Hebei and Mongolia's throat, north of the Great Wall and bordering with Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, is the place of the soldiers of the past generations, the "key to the north," the name.
Datong City is one of the first batch of national historical and cultural cities, one of the nine ancient capitals of China, which was once the southern capital of Daikoku, the capital of Northern Wei Dynasty, and the accompanying capital of Liao, Jin, and Yuan, and has many monuments including Yungang Grottoes, Datong Ancient City, Hengshan Mountain of Beiyue Mountain, the Great Wall of Datong City, Huayan Temple, Shannhuashan Temple, Suspended Temple, and Nine Dragons' Cliffs, etc., and it is the "City of Museums" supported by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. ", one of the first 13 larger cities in China, a national comprehensive transportation hub, a national logistics hub, a national key tourist city, a national garden city, a national new energy demonstration city, a national model city for double embrace, a Chinese excellent tourist city, the sculpture capital of China, the hometown of Chinese knife-shaved noodle, the top ten sports and leisure cities in China, an international gourmet capital, and the capital of yellow flowers in China.
Datong is also one of the largest coal energy bases in China, a national heavy chemical energy base, the midpoint of Shenfu, Junggar Emerging Energy Zone and Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Industrial Zone, and is known as the "Phoenix City" and the "Coal Capital of China".
In 2023, the GDP of Datong City will reach 187.15 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 5.1%.