Xian Travel Guide

Introduction

Shanxi Province, 1,200km (744 miles) SW of Beijing

Surrounded by rich loess farmland, Xi'an (Western Peace), the present capital of Shanxi Province, was home to the ruling houses of the Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties, when it was known as Chang'an (Eternal Peace). The city reached a peak during the Tang dynasty (618-907), when it was the military and trading base for China's shaky control of the Silk Routes. During the Xuanzong reign of the Tang (712-55), Chang'an boasted two million taxable inhabitants and was the largest, most cosmopolitan settlement in the world.

The scale of the metropolis is readily imagined -- what are now referred to as the city walls were rebuilt during the Ming dynasty (1644-1911) on the remains of Tang palace walls. The Tang city walls extended 8km (5 miles) north-south and almost 10km (6 miles) east-west, and the south gate opened onto a tree-lined avenue 150m (500 ft.) wide, down which foreign emissaries would once approach the metropolis....