China Guide
The Yellow River
The Nine Dragon Screen
Opening time: 7.30am–7.30pm
Price: ¥10
Address: South side of Da Dong Jie
The Nine Dragon Screen is the largest of several similar Ming dynasty screens around the city; a lively forty-five-metre-long relief of nine sinuous dragons depicted in 426 multicoloured glazed tiles, rising from the waves and cavorting among suns. The only other dragon screens of this age are in Beijing, the main difference here being that these dragons have only four claws, indicating the dwelling of a prince, not an emperor (whose dragons had five claws). Originally, the screen stood directly in front of a palace, destroyed in the fifteenth century, as an unpassable obstacle to evil spirits, which, it was thought, could only travel in straight lines. A long, narrow pool in front of the screen is meant to reflect the dragons and give the illusion of movement when you look into its rippling surface.