Brief Introduction: The scenic area of city wall in Xi’an is located in the downtown area of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. There are four gates along the city wall,which are Changle east gate, Anding west gate, Yongning south gate and Anyuan north gate. Xi 'an city wall was built on the basis of defense strategy system in the Tang dynasty (618-907AD).The thickness of the wall is greater than the height,which was as solid as a mountain.However, to the top of wall can practice sports cars. The existing wall built in Ming Hongwu period (1374-1378), has been 600 years of history, which runs 13.8km totally. It is one of the most famous walls at the late middle ages in the history of China and also the most complete existing ancient city wall constructionin China.

The History of the city wall

After Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398), the founder of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), occupied the city of Huizhou, he was advised by a recluse named Zhu Sheng that "building indestructible city walls and hoarding grains before declaring yourself emperor". At the age when the city gates were the only entrances of a city,city walls were the undoubtedly crucial defense points that feudalistic rulers focused on. Therefore, city walls were constructed nationally when the emperor unified the country. The circumvallation in Xi'an today was one of the achievements, which was built and expanded on the former imperial city of Tang Dynasty (618-907).

At the very beginning, the body of the Ancient City Wall in Xi'an was built with layered loess, and the base was tamped with the mixture of sticky rice juice, lime and earth. This simple but hard wall was not paved with black bricks until 1568. It was stable enough to allow solders to practice and chariots to run on it. The wall was increased to be 12 meters high, 12-14 meters wide on the top and 15-18 meters wide at the bottom respectively. 98 observation towers in total were built every 120 meters extruding the city wall to defense enemies who climbed into the wall.

One water channel is equipped every 40-60 meters on the top of the Ancient City Wall as drainage, which plays an important part in keep the wall from destroy from flood. Along the wall encircles the wide and deep city moat, with a drawbridge on the front gate of the city which could be raised up and descended down at any time to ensure the security of the city.

Main Structures Constituting the Ancient City Wall of Xi'an

The Ancient City Wall of Xi'an is a rigorous and integrated military defense system comprising city moat, drawbridge, various observation towers, battlements,turrets, parapets and crenels. Since constructed from Sui and Tang dynasties about 1400 years ago, the wall has experienced series of alteration and finalized the current layout, with the Changle Gate (East Gate), the Yongning Gate (South Gate), the Anding Gate (West Gate) and the Anyuan Gate (North Gate) being the four main city gates.

The Level:  AAAA tourists attraction ; the most completeconstruction of ancient city wall in China

Entrance fee:54 YuanRMB
Opening time:
- South Gate: 8:00a.m.--9:00 p.m.
- Wenchang Gate, Heping Gate, East Gate, West Gate, North Gate: 8:00 a.m.--8:00p.m.
- Shangde Gate, Wumu Gate (aka Xiaonan Gate): 8:00 a.m.--6:00p.m.

Visiting Time Normally:1-2 hrs

Better Seasons to Visit: March—October

Travel Tips:1,On the city wall you may choose to ride bicycles to go around the wall. The cost of bicycle rental is 20 Yuan / 100 minutes / single bike, 40 Yuan / 100 minutes / tandem bike, usually a guarantee deposit of 100 Yuan is required for a bike (Or visitors can choose thetourist buggy on the wall).

2, It is not allowed to do any graffiti on the wall.

3, Do not try to climb over the top of city wall, which is absolutely prohibited.

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