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The Old Walled City of Xi'an

In May there was a four day break (essentially the Victoria Day weekend) so we were off to Xián, which is in the interior of China, 1500 K inland from Hong Kong.   So why Xián?  Because after the Great Wall, the other famous western tourist destination is the Terracotta Warriors.  That was what we were there for, but we got a lot more, such as:

1.   Xián is a real Chinese city.  It is offically called a Class Two city, which means it is not Beijing, Shanghia or Gwangzhou or one of the few other world class cities in China.  If it not flooded with wealth and excess, rather it is normal and balanced.  None-the-less it is big, like a population of 4.5 million.

2.  A completely walled old city which we were able to explore easily and without guides.  Xián is easy to figure out and do on your own.  We cycled around the wall, a 13 K bike journey on some very bumpy cobbletones

3.  Beginning to appreciate what it feels like to be in China; there were few western tourist in this city.  Most fly in, visit the Terra Cotta Warriors and head out the next day.  We were there for four days so we could explore the city more carefully.

4.  There was a mountain we had not heard of that was an awesome hiking paradise.

5.  There was another terra cotta warrior site which was every much an spectular but not frequented by visitors so you had the time to look about.

Just to fill you in on Xián, below is a Wikipedia backgrounder.

Xi'an, is the capital of the Shaanxi province in the People's Republic of China and a sub-provincial city. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xi'an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China because it has been the capital (under various names) of some of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, the Sui, and Tang dynasties. Xi'an is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and home of the Terracotta Army which was made during the Qin Dynasty. The city has more than 3,100 years of history, and was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty.

Xi'an became a cultural and political center of China in 11th century BC with the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. The capital of Zhou was established in Fēng, both located just west of contemporary Xi'an. Following the Warring States Period, China was unified under the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) for the first time, with the capital located at Xianyang, just northwest from modern Xi'an. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Terracotta Army and his mausoleum just east of Xi'an almost immediately upon his ascension to the throne.

The original Xi'an city wall was started in 194 BCE and took 4 years to finish. Upon completion, the wall measured 25.7 km (15.97 mi) in length and 12–16 m (39.37–52.49 ft) in thickness at the base, enclosing an area of 36 km² (13.90 sq mi). In the year 190, amidst uprisings and rebellions just prior to the Three Kingdoms Period, a powerful warlord named Dong Zhuo moved the court from Luoyang to Chang'an in a bid to avoid a coalition of other powerful warlords against him.

Following several hundred years of unrest, Sui Dynasty united China again in 582. The emperor of Sui ordered a new capital to be built southeast of the Han capital, called Daxing. It consisted of three sections: the Xi'an Palace, the Imperial City, and the civilian section, with a total area of 84 km² within the city walls. At the time, it was the largest city in the world. The city was renamed Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty. In the mid-7th century, after returning from his pilgrimage to India, Buddhist monk Xuan Zang (popularly known as Tang Sanzang) established a translation center for Sanskrit scriptures.

Construction of the Wild Goose Pagod  began in 652. This pagoda was 64 m (209.97 ft) in height, and was built to store the translations of Buddhist sutras obtained from India by the Xuan Zang.

Chang'an was devastated at the end of the Tang Dynasty in 904. Residents were forced to move to the new capital city in Luoyang. Only a small area in the city continued to be occupied thereafter. During the Ming Dynasty, a new wall was constructed in 1370 and remains intact to this day. The wall measures 11.9 km in circumference, 12 m (39.37 ft) in height, and 15–18 m (49.21–59.06 ft) in thickness at the base; a moat was also built outside the walls. The new wall and moat would protect a much smaller city of 12 km².

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