Dingdingmen Relics Museum

Dingdingmen Relics Museum

Dingdingmen Relics Museum is a national AA-level tourist attraction and a patriotic education base.

Dingdingmen, the main gate of the outer city of Sui-Tang Luoyang, was first built in the first year of the Daye era during the Sui Dynasty. Initially named Jianguomen in the early Sui period, it was renamed Dingdingmen in the Tang Dynasty. It is situated along the central axis of Sui-Tang Luoyang. Emperor Yang of Sui constructed the Eastern Capital and moved the capital to Luoyang the following year, making him the first ancient Chinese emperor to pass through Dingdingmen. Later, Dingdingmen was successively designated as the main gate of the outer city of Luoyang by the Tang, Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Zhou, and Northern Song dynasties. It was not gradually abandoned until the late Northern Song Dynasty. As the main southern gate of the outer city, Dingdingmen served for 530 years, making it the longest-used city gate in ancient China. Dingdingmen was also a key passageway on the eastern route from the Sui-Tang Eastern Capital to Chang’an in the west and Jiangdu in the south.

Dingdingmen Museum

The Dingdingmen from the early flourishing Tang period is relatively well-preserved and consists of piers, gateways, partition walls, flying corridors, watchtower platforms, culverts, and horse paths. The piers are rectangular in shape, measuring 44.5 meters east-west and 21.04 meters north-south, with remaining heights of up to 1.05 meters. The existing piers were mainly built from yellow-brown soil with a high sand content, which is hard and contains only small amounts of pottery fragments and broken tiles. The early flourishing Tang Dingdingmen had three gateways: east, middle, and west. The eastern and western gateways are better preserved, while the middle gateway is more severely damaged. All three gateways feature beam-frame structures, each 5.8 meters wide from east to west and 21.04 meters deep from north to south, with single-layer doors installed in the middle sections.

The Dingdingmen ruins are representative remains of the eastern sites during the heyday of the Silk Road. They bear witness to the civilization level of the empire during the peak of East Asian agrarian civilization development, showcase the ritual characteristics and influence of the urban culture of the Tang Dynasty capital, and are closely linked to the bustling trade along the Silk Road. Dingdingmen served as the main entrance and district ruins of the Eastern Capital Luoyang, the starting point of the Silk Road during the 7th to 10th centuries.

Due to the relatively intact preservation of the Dingdingmen ruins and their strong visual and exhibition value, the National Cultural Heritage Administration decided to protect and exhibit the Dingdingmen ruins by constructing the Dingdingmen Relics Museum on the original site. On the morning of October 30, 2009, the Sui-Tang Luoyang City Dingdingmen Relics Museum, a key project in the national protection of major ruins, officially opened. An ancient city gate that had been in use for the longest time in Chinese history finally “re-emerged” above ground after lying dormant underground for a thousand years.

Construction of the Dingdingmen Relics Museum officially began in February 2009. It was the first project to commence under the Sui-Tang Luoyang City Major Ruins Protection and Exhibition Project. The museum has one underground floor and two floors above ground, with a total investment of about 40 million yuan. The project’s highlight is the use of a steel frame structure to reconstruct a new gate tower of Dingdingmen on top of the ruins, while ensuring the protection of the underground relics. This approach effectively preserves the cultural relics while showcasing the historical appearance of Dingdingmen.

Address: 400m from the intersection of Longmen Avenue and Gucheng Road, Luolong District, Luoyang City

Type: Ancient Relics Museum

Recommended Visiting Time: About 1 hour

Phone: 0379-80881315

Opening Hours:

Tuesday–Sunday 9:00–17:00, closed on Mondays

Ticket: 30 yuan