Xi'an City Wall

introduce

The Xi'an City Wall is the iconic landscape of the ancient capital of Xi'an, and it is also one of the most complete ancient city walls in my country so far. About 14 kilometers in length, it was built on the basis of the imperial city of the Tang Dynasty, including a series of facilities such as moats and turrets.

History background:

Xi'an City Wall is also known as Xi'an Ming City Wall. The existing city wall is a Ming Dynasty building with a total length of 13.7 kilometers. It was built on the basis of the imperial cities of the Sui and Tang Dynasties under the guidance of the policy of building walls, accumulating grain widely, and becoming king slowly. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, canonized his second son Zhu Xi as the King of Qin. The vassal and government were in the same city, so the scale of the city was large and strong. In addition, it was repaired and expanded many times in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it has been well preserved to this day. At the beginning of 2004, the Hanguangmen section of the city wall road project in Xi’an City was under construction. The Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Research Institute was entrusted by relevant departments to cooperate with the project to carry out archaeological investigations on the exposed city wall section. , After five major constructions, it is of great historical value.

City Wall Structure:

The buildings on the city wall are divided into: enemy tower, main tower, archery tower, gate tower and turret

• enemy station
• After the expansion of the Xi'an City Wall in the Ming Dynasty, one enemy tower was built every 120 meters, protruding outside the city wall, and the top was level with the city wall. It was specially set up for shooting and killing enemies who climbed the city. Half of the distance between the enemy towers is just within the effective range of the bow and arrow, which is convenient for shooting the attacking enemy from the side. There are 98 enemy towers on the city wall, all of which have enemy towers for garrison troops.
• Main building (city tower), archery tower, gate tower
• In the era of cold weapons, the weapons were backward, and the city gate was used as an access channel, so this is the focus of defense that the city defenders painstakingly managed. There are four city gates in the east, west, south and north of Xi'an City, and there are three gate towers, namely the main tower, the archery tower and the gate tower. The gate tower is the outermost, its function is to lift the suspension bridge; the archery tower is in the middle, with square windows on the front and sides for archery; the main building is the innermost, which is the main gate of the city.
• turret
• The four corners of Xi'an City Wall have corner platforms protruding outside the city. Except for the southwest corner which is round (probably in order to maintain the original shape of the corner of the Tang Imperial City), the other corners are square. There are taller "turrets" built on the corner tower than the enemy tower, which shows the important position of this place in the war.

city ​​gate

There are currently 18 gates in the city wall of Xi'an, clockwise from Yongning Gate: Yongning Gate, Suzaku Gate, Wumu Gate, Hanguang Gate, Anding Gate, Yuxiang Gate, Shangwu Gate, Anyuan Gate, Shangde Gate, Jiefang Gate , Shangjian Gate, Shangqin Gate, Chaoyang Gate, Zhongshan Gate, Changle Gate, Jianguo Gate, Heping Gate, Wenchang Gate. Among them, only Yongning Gate has three city walls intact. This is due to the needs of military defense at that time. Anyuan Gate, Changle Gate, and Anding Gate have only two city walls left due to the long time. The gates beside the city wall were all built during the Republic of China. The other fourteen city gates were built later.

• Yongning Gate
• Commonly known as the South Gate, it is the longest gate in Xi'an, built in the early Sui Dynasty (582). It used to be the eastern one of the three gates on the south side of the imperial city, called Anshang Gate. It was renamed South Gate in the late Tang Dynasty when the new city was shrunk, and Yongning Gate in Ming Dynasty. It is also the most complete one among the gates of Xi'an City Wall. The newly completed underground passage allows visitors to enter the city gate safely.
• peace gate
• It is on the same north-south axis as the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Dacha City, Xi'an Railway Station, and Hanyuan Hall of Daming Palace. It was opened in 1953. In order to express the desire of the war-torn Chinese people for world peace, it was named the Gate of Peace. Inside the city gate is Heping Road, and outside the city gate is Yanta Road.
• Hanguangmen
• It is the Pianxi Gate to the south of Chang'an Imperial City in Tang Dynasty. In 1984, during the renovation of Xi'an City Wall, the ruins of Hanguangmen were excavated, and the column foundations made of granite and the carved thresholds and doorways were found. Now artificial lighting and air-conditioning systems have been set up inside for tourists to visit. The newly built Quandong city gate is placed on the east and west sides of the ruins, the appearance is consistent with the city wall, and the Hanguang Gate Ruins Museum of the Tang Dynasty city wall is set inside, which can be entered from the city wall.
• Andingmen
• Commonly known as Ximen, it was originally the middle gate on the west side of the imperial city in the Tang Dynasty. When the city wall was expanded in the Ming Dynasty, the location was moved slightly to the south, and it was named Andingmen, implying Antai Kangding in the western frontier. The city gate originally had three gate towers: the gate tower, the archery tower and the gate tower. There are three walls, inside the city tower, the archery tower is in the middle, and the gate tower faces outward. There are arched door openings under the gate tower, with a height and width of 6 meters. There is a square urn between the city tower and the archery tower, which is used as an access channel in normal times and an important defensive area in wartime. On the north side of the city tower, there is a viewing platform built by the Emperor of Japan when he visited Xi'an for tourists to visit. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit.
• Anyuanmen
• Commonly known as the North Gate, the North Gate was built when the city wall was built in the Ming Dynasty, and its official name is Anyuan Gate. The word "Anyuan" inherits the policy of softness and appeasement adopted by the Han court in the Central Plains towards the remote ethnic minorities, hoping that the remote ethnic minorities will be grateful to the imperial court. During the Revolution of 1911, the rebel army attacked the Qing Dynasty, and the battle at Anyuanmen was fierce. During the battle, the tower of the North Gate was burned down. When the city wall was renovated in 1983, the original watchtower was restored.
• Jianguomen
• To commemorate the great historical event of the founding of New China, a new city gate was opened on the city wall of the Jianguo Road section, hence the name Jianguomen. The road inside the gate is Jianguo Road, and the road outside the gate and Huancheng South Road are T-shaped intersections. According to the research of historians, Sun Wuji, a famous official in the Tang Dynasty, lived on Jianguo Road today. The mansion of General Zhang Xueliang, an important figure in the Xi'an Incident that shocked China and abroad, is located here. Now Zhang Xueliang Mansion has been listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the state.
• Changle Gate
• Commonly known as the East Gate, it was built during the construction of the Ming City Wall, and its official name is Changle Gate. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng invaded Xi'an from the east gate. Li Zicheng saw the "Changle Gate" plaque hanging on the city gate, and said to the soldiers around him: "If the emperor is allowed to be happy, the people will suffer forever." Then his subordinates set fire to the tower and burned it down until the Qing Dynasty rebuilt it. Before the "Xi'an Incident", General Zhang Xueliang once set up a teaching team and a student team on the East Gate Tower. This old site has been restored as a memorial site for the Xi'an Incident.

opening hours

January 22-February 6 08:00-23:00 (stop ticket sales at 23:00, last admission 23:00); February 7-May 31 08:00-22:30 (stop Ticket sales 22:30, latest admission 22:30); June 1-January 21 next year 08:00-22:00 (stop ticket sales 22:00, last admission 22:00); open above The time applies to Yongning Gate (South Gate); Changle Gate (East Gate) business hours 08:00-18:00; other gates are not yet open. Stop buying tickets at 20:00 on New Year's Eve, and turn off the lights at 21:00; turn off the lights at 23:00 on weekdays during the Lantern Festival, and turn off the lights at 23:30 on designated days

Preferential treatment policy

Service Facilities

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