Xi’an , the historical city, was called Chang’an in ancient times, and is now the capital of Shaanxi province. Today Xian is the political, economic and cultural center of the Northwest China . With the development of travel industry and the implementation of the open policy, it has become one of the nation’s key tourist cities and tourism has become the mainstay in Shaanxi ’s economy.  Xian does not look special. But it holds one treasure that makes it different from all the other Chinese cities with 3 million inhabitants: the army of Xian.

The Qin Army Vault Museum is where you find this the army of 2 200-year-old terra-cotta soldiers unearthed 24 mi/40 km east of town. More than 8 000 life-size ceramic soldiers chariots and horses have been uncovered (this is only a fraction of the total buried there to protect the tomb of the first Qin emperor). Each soldier is based on an actual person of the time and all segments of Chinese society are represented.

Geographic Features

Xi’an is located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River with the eight small rivers as the tributaries. It holds a key position in the fertile plain between the high loess plateau to the north and the Qinling Mountains to the south. The Qinling Mountain Range is an important geographical divide between northern and southern China and the major watershed of the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers . Xi’an covers an area of 16,808 sq km with the temperate and continental climate, cold and dry in winter and hot in summer and rainy season comes in July, August and September. It lies at 107oeast longitude and 33onorth latitude with the altitude of 412 meters. The annual mean temperature is 13Co with annual precipitation of 604 mm.

People

Xi’an has a population of six million with 3.5 million in urban area. People who inhabit here are mainly Han, Hun, Manchu and Mongols.

Xian’s population is for a large part Muslim. You will see that some of the buildings have an Arabic or Persian touch.influence. The bearded men worshiping there wear skull caps.

History

This city is the primer in Chinese history, as between 1,000 BC and 1,000AD it served as the imperial capital for eleven dynasties. This area has been the site of some of the oldest cities in the world’s oldest civilization. Its history begins in the Bronze Age, three thousand years ago, when the Western Zhou dynasty, known for their skilled bronze work, built their capital at Fenghao, a few miles west. When the Fenghao was sacked by northwestern tribes, the Zhou dynasty moved to Luoyang . In 221 BC the Emperor Qin Shi Huang united Chinese in a single empire, the Qin, with its capital at Xianyang, just north of Xi’an . The successor, the Han dynasty, also based here, ruled from 206BC to 220AD.Near contemporaries of Imperial Rome, they ruled an empire of comparable size and power .Here Xi’an was the starting point of the Silk Road which was one of the most important arteries of trade and culture in world history. It was not until 589AD that the Sui dynasty took to build a new capital near Xi’an called Da Xingcheng-Great Prosperity City. The Tang dynasty, who replaced them in 618AD, took over the capital, overplaying it with their own buildings. The city was in its day the capital of a great empire and one of the biggest metropolitans in the world. There were more than 1 million people who housed in the magnificent city whose plan was so symmetrical that it was taken as a model for the building of many other Chinese cities and for the Japanese capital Nara , In 710.The Tang Dynasty period was a golden age for the arts, and ceramics, calligraphy, painting and poetry. After the fall of the Tang dynasty, Xi’an went into a long decline. Although it was never again the imperial capital, it still played an important military role in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Important notice: Parts of the information has been delivered by China Holiday.