My Life: Xian

The South Gate...

Long before the country and other countries kowtowed to Beijing, there was Chang'an: a thriving city of emperors, courtesans, monks, merchants and soldiers. A place where many of the world's great religions coexisted and Chinese culture reached an apogee of creativity and sophistication.

Chang'an, present day Xian was the fabled beginning and end of the Silk Road, a swirl of colours and desert dust where camel caravans unloaded good from across the Eurasian continent and reloaded silk, silver, porcelain, medicine and tea from China that went on to influence the world.

Like all metropolises, it had to come to an end. Destroyed in rebellions that marked the decline of the Tang dynasty, by the 10'th century Chang'an was no more. Xian today sis in the fertile Wei river valley, one of the epicenters of early Chinese civilization. The area was home to the capitals of several major dynasties, stretching all the way back to Zhou in the 11'th century BC.

Xian is one of the few cities in China where the old City Walls are still standing. Built in 1370 during the Ming Dynasty, the walls are 12m high, up to 18m thick at the base and 14m and form a rectangle with a perimeter of 14km.

The walls are surrounded by a moat. It is possible to walk the entirety of the wall in about four hours. I took it at a walk and in the end a half run in 3 hours so that I still have time to see the Big Goose Pagoda and the adjacent shopping hutongs which are famous for calligraphy etc. at the South Cate entrance before the end of the day...

Xian's most famous landmark the Big Goose Pagoda was completed in AD 652 to house the Buddhist sutras brought back from India by the monk Xuan Zang. He spent the last 19 years of his life translating these sutras and may of these translations are still used today. His travels have inspired one of the most well known works of Chinese literature, Journey to the West