Shaanix Provincial Museum:
The Shaanxi Provincial History Museum - a striking Tang-Dynasty style pavilion, houses a large collection of 113,000 historic and cultural artefacts unearthed in Shaanxi. It is an absolute must for every visitor to the city. The main complex is a mixture of ancient palaces and courtyard buildings, harmonious and graceful in hue, in simple and elegant style. The exhibits on the ground and first floors are arranged in roughly three parts: Basic Exhibition Hall, the Theme Exhibition Hall and East Exhibition Hall.
Basic Exhibition Hall:
The exhibition is divided into seven parts of the stone age, the dynasties of the Zhou, the Qin, the Han, the Wei, the Jin, the South and North Dynasty, the Sui, the Tang, the Song, the Yuan, the Ming and the Qing.
East Exhibition Hall:
This hall mainly holds temporary exhibitions from home and abroad. The hall has held several exhibitions including "The Zhaoling Mausoleum's Fine Cultural Relics Exhibition", "Exhibition of Cultural Relics of Empress Wu Zetian and Women in the Tang dynasty" etc.
Theme Exhibition Hall:
This hall is mainly for holding various types of theme exhibitions with a focus on Shaanxi local cultural characteristics.
A science and technology center has been built for the preservation of relics. Language is not a barrier, because the computer-controlled, international symposium hall provides spontaneous interpretation into six different languages.
City Wall:
When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should "built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor," so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang dynasty (618 -907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.
After the extension, the wall now stands 12 meters (40 feet) tall, 12-14 meters (40-46 feet) wide at the top and 15-18 meters (50-60 feet) thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 kilometers (8.5 miles) in length with a deep moat surrounding it.
Small Wild Goose Pagoda:
Since it was smaller and built later than the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, it was named the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. It was built in 707 during the Tang Dynasty. As ancient architecture, however, it has kept all its Tang Dynasty features.
Small Wild Goose Pagoda, an early attempt at such pagodas, has certain structural weaknesses. Most notable are the small windows on the north and south sides of all storeys, reducing the buildings firmness. That defect later caused the pagoda to split vertically into two parts in an earthquake. This weakness was eliminated in other pagodas by avoiding doors and windows on the same sides on all storeys.
Forest of Steles:
Once the site of the Temple of Confucius during the Northern Song dynasty (960--1127), the Forest of Stone Steles Museum is situated on Sanxue Street, near the south gate of Xi'an City Wall. With an area of 31,000 square meters, the Forest of Stone Steles used to be the principal museum for Shaanxi Province since 1944. Then because of the large number of stone steles, it was officially named as the Forest of Stone Steles Museum in 1992.
With 900 years of history, this treasure house holds a large collection of the earliest stone steles of different periods, all together, there are 3,000 steles and the museum is divided into seven exhibitions halls, which mainly display the works of calligraphy, painting and historical records.
Bell Tower:
Have you ever heard the sound of " the morning bell " and " the dusk drum " in China? You can see these dual towers in many ancient cities of China that have existed since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), among which the most well-preserved and best-known are the Bell and Drum Towers in Xian.
The Bell Tower was originally built in the Yingxiang Temple in 1384, at the intersection of West Street and Guangji Street. Then in 1582, it was moved to its present pivotal position, in the very heart of the city at the junction of four main streets extending to the east, south, west and north, for rebuilding and later restorations.
Drum Tower:
To the northwest of the Bell Tower, across from the Bell Tower and Drum Tower Square, the Drum Tower is located at the end of a lively street in the Muslim Quarter.
Four years older than the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower was built in 1380, so has more than 600 years of history. According to legend, in ancient times there once hung a drum for telling time. The drum was struck at dusk, hence the name "Drum Tower".
