The
City Wall of Xi’an is
just at the center of
Xi’an municipality, in a
rectangular shape and
with the length from
east to west a little
longer than that from
south to north. The
perimeter of the city
wall is 11.9 kilometers,
with four gates
constructed in the four
directions of east,
south, west and north.
The construction system
of the city gates is in
a four-rampart and
12-gate style. The
Northern City Gate is
called Anyuan Gate, the
Southern City Gate is
called Yong’an Gate, the
West City Gate is called
Anding Gate, and the
East City Gate is called
Changle Gate. It was
rebuilt and extended on
the base of the original
Tang Dynasty Palace Wall
from the seventh year to
the eleventh year of
Hongwu in Ming Dynasty
(from 1374 to 1378 AD).
It has a history of 600
years up to now and it
is also the most large,
solid and complete city
wall which has survived
through the long history
in China.
Xi’an is called Chang’an
in Chinese history.
Chang’an, as an ancient
organizational capital
city, has a history of
over 3,000 (called
Haojing in Zhou Dynasty,
Xianyang in Qin Dynasty
and Chang’an after Han
Dynasty up to the time
before the Ming
Dynasty). It was the
Tang Empire that set its
capital at the present
site of Xi’an, with a
perimeter of 35
kilometers long city
wall. Such a large-scale
city wall construction
is rarely found in the
world history.
Therefore, it is
regarded as one of the
four ancient capital
cities together with the
Italian city "Rome",
"Athens" of Greece and
"Cairo" of Egypt. The
Tang City Wall was
ruined in a war at the
beginning of the 10th
century AD. At the end
of Tang Dynasty, in the
first year of Tian You
Period (904 AD), the
city governor Hanjian of
the security army which
settled in Chang’an
rebuilt the city wall on
the base of the inner
city wall of the Tang
Dynasty Imperial Palace
of the Tang Chang’an
city. This is the
original shape of the
present city wall. In
the second year of Hong
Wu in the Ming Dynasty,
the founder of Ming
Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang
occupied "Fengyuanlu"
(the new city rebuilt by
Hanjian) and changde the
name of "Fengyuanlu"
into "Chang’an Fu",
hence the name
"Chang’an" has been used
ever since. Meanwhile,
he nominated his second
son Zhushuang as "King
Qin" to govern this
area, and ordered an
inner city "King Qin’s
Palace" ("New city"
where the Shaanxi
Provincial government is
now located) built
inside the city of
Xi’an. In the seventh
year of Hongwu Period
(1370 AD), Zhushuang
started to widen and
make higher the city
wall rebuilt by Hanjian,
and extended the
northern city wall and
the eastern city wall
outwards in a degree of
one-third, thus formed
the present scale of the
city wall.
The city wall of Xi’an
is 12 meters high, 15
meters wide on the top
and 18 meters at the
bottom, with battlements
of 1.65 meters high.
Laid on the top are
three layers of bricks,
which make it convenient
for drainage. In the
four directions, there
is a city gate tower and
arrow tower each. Each
city gate tower has 3
ramparts and 3
entrances, which make up
4 inner cities (or
compounds). In front of
each inner city (or
compounds), there is a
Zhalou (rampart with a
suspense bridge. The
three ramparts standing
in a line, with upturned
eaves up into the sky,
make up a magnificent
scene. The surrounding
moat just outside the
city wall makes it
imregnable. |