1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
China
Compare this sourced profile of Datong, China before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Datong—1,850,000, Asia/Shanghai, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: prefecture-level city in Shanxi, China.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Datong is GeoNames ID 2037799. Its recorded administrative path is Datong Shi → Shanxi → China, and GeoNames classifies the place as a populated place. Datong occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2025-12-14; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Datong ranks 228 by recorded population. Inside the 296 selected China entries it ranks 76; inside the 632 entries in its broad region it ranks 136. Its 1,850,000 population value is 1.59 times the 1,165,375 median for the country cohort and 1.83 times the 1,008,426 regional median. Datong sits in the second quarter of this atlas's China population cohort. Datong's recorded value is above the country-cohort median but remains below twice that benchmark. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Datong's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Ulanqab at 100.899 km with 550,231 recorded people; Zhangjiakou at 154.15 km with 692,602 recorded people; Hohhot at 159.971 km with 2,350,000 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 59.072 km. Compared with Ulanqab, Datong's recorded population is 3.36 times as large. Against Datong, Ulanqab follows Wulanchabu Shi → Inner Mongolia → China in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected China cohort, uses the shared Asia/Shanghai identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is below Datong's. Against Datong, Zhangjiakou follows Zhangjiakou Shi → Hebei → China in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected China cohort, uses the shared Asia/Shanghai identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is below Datong's. Against Datong, Hohhot follows Hohhot Shi → Inner Mongolia → China in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected China cohort, uses the shared Asia/Shanghai identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is above Datong's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 704 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Datong's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 2037799, the coordinate pair 40.0936 / 113.2914, country rank 76 of 296, and neighbor GeoNames 8335361 at 100.899 km bind Datong to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Datong's reference point is 40.0936° north and 113.2914° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Shanghai is shared by 291 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPL is shared by 243 rows. Datong's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Datong's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Datong's place-class field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its time zone is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Datong, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Datong's closest other entries in this atlas are Ulanqab (100.899 km), Zhangjiakou (154.15 km), Hohhot (159.971 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Datong, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2025-12-14; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.