Datong

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Datong or Tatung (both: dä´tōōng), city (1994 est. pop. 845,000), N Shanxi prov., China. It is an important industrial and railway center in a region of great coal deposits. A major, highly mechanized coal mine is there. Manufactures are a mix of light and heavy industrial products. As Pingchang, the city was (5th–6th cent.) the capital of the Northern Wei kingdom. Nearby limestone grottoes at Yungang contain Buddhist art, including more than 50,000 statues, from the 5th and 6th cent.