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Xi'an was one of the most important cradles of Chinese civilization. The
famous ¡°Silk Road¡± that linked China with central Asia and
the Roman Empire starts
in Xi¡¯an in the east. The city
served as the first capital of a unified China and capital of 11 dynasties periodically
from the 11th century BC to the early 10th century AD.
Located between rivers and
mountains in the center of the fertile Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi province, Xi'an--the
provincial capital--is the natural place to nurture the nation's civilization. Back in the
Neolithic Age, about 6,000 years ago, as excavations show, a matriarchal clan was formed
at Banpo village in the region. Thousands of years later, the Zhou kings
established their capital in settlements only a few miles from the present-day city. In
331 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China, set about expanding
the settlement of Xianyang, about 15 miles northwest of the city. This town, established
under earlier Qin rulers as the capital, became heavily populated, so that in 313 BC, Emperor Qin
decided to move his court to the south bank of the Wei River. A vast palace was begun.
However, the work
was never completed in his lifetime, and some years later when the Qin fell to the Han
(306 BC), this and most of the other palaces were set
ablaze and destroyed.
The conqueror, Liu Bang,
first emperor of the Han Dynasty, established his capital only a few miles north of modern day
Xi'an. From about 35 AD, the town went into a
decline that lasted about five and a half centuries, until, in 583 AD, the Sui emperor,
Wen Di, established his capital southeast of Changan. The area
flourished and developed so quickly under the Tang Dynasty that in time it became the most
prominent
city in Asia, with a population of about a million people living in a vast, well-planned
area protected by large walls with ramparts. For over a millennium from the Second
Century BC, China's silk was transported from Xi'an to central Asia and Europe. Although
damaged by several wars, Xi'an, covering 880 square miles and with a population of
3,915,000 still contains a host of historical sites.
SHAANXI PROVINCIAL
MUSEUM (Forest of Stele) ¡¡ |
