Xian Sightseeing: Around the City

City Wall

Xian's city wall dates back to 1370 when it was already a much smaller city than in its heyday. Fortunately for us, the city didn't have the funds when more prosperous cities were modernizing and, hence, tearing down their walls. Instead, the now restored wall gives the old city center a strong personality lacking in most other Chinese cities. The wall is 14km long and makes an excellent jogging track. In fact, a running event takes place on top of the wall every year. Traditional red lanterns light up the top in the evenings.

Big Goose Pagoda

The Tang dynasty sent monk Xuan Zang to India to bring back buddhist sutras to China. His journey was immortalized in China's epic fantasy "Journey to the West", in which he is aided by the mischievious Monkey King. It took the real Xuan Zang sixteen years to accomplish his mission but he did return with the sutras as well as a number of Indian monks to help with the translation. The Tang emperor built this pagoda in 652 CE to store the more than 600 sutras.

Tang Museum

This small private museum showcases the Tang Dynasty, the last dynasty to rule from Chang'an, as Xian was called in ancient times. The Tang Dynasty represents the apex of Chinese civilization. It was also the most liberal one as far as its treatment of women was concerned. Women clothing showed more skin than at any later time. Western imports such as Buddhism were allowed to flourish. The influence of the Tang dynasty was felt as far as Japan, which adopted the style clothing and much of the Chinese culture of this time. For this reason, pictures of Chinese ladies of this era look rather Japanese to our eyes.