外文名称: Xi'an City
Xi'an Attractions Getting There
Xi'an, which was named "Chang'an" in
ancient times, is the most famous six ancient capitals of China and one
of the world's four most famous ancient capitals. It has a history of
3,058 years since King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty, who built his capital
here before the Christian era. After that, monarchs of 14 dynasties
chose the city as their capitals, with a total history of 1,100 years.
Though it lost its capital status after the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907)
as China's political and economic power moved eastward, the city still
remained an important military base in western China. The current name
"Xi'an" has been used as of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644), and the
existing Wall of Xi'an City was also built in the Ming Dynasty. As the
departure point for the famous Silk Road, Xi'an has been in the
forefront of economic and cultural exchanges between China and other
countries for centuries.
Xi'an City is
located at the center of the inland Guanzhong Basin, with Jingwei to
the north, Qinling to the south, Weihua to the east and Xianyang to the
west. It has eight districts and five counties under its jurisdiction,
covering a total area of 9,983 sq km, including an urban area of 162 sq
km. At the northern foot of Qinling, a mountain chain, is a natural
reserve and scenic zone of the city.
Xi'an is in the temperate zone,
enjoying semi-moist monsoon and
moderate rainfall. Its four seasons are clearly divided, with an
average temperature of 13.3癈, a frost-free period of 207 days and an
average annual rainfall of 604.2 mm.
Xi'an has rich natural resources, such
as over 1,000 kinds of forest
plants, 230-plus species of birds and many species of precious wild
animals like the golden monkey, panda and antelope. Its main minerals
include gold, iron, copper, graphite, marble, feldspar and quartz.
In 1984, Xi'an was approved by the
State Council
as a city with the provincial status in planning, becoming one of the
16 cities with the sub-provincial status.
Now Xi'an is the largest center of
science,
technology, culture, sports, education, commerce, trade, finance,
telecommunications, aviation and manufacturing in northwest China. It
is also a well-known international tourist city.
The manufacturing sector is the
largest economic
pillar of Xi'an. Transportation
equipment manufacturing is the city's largest industry, with more than
160 enterprises and an annual output value of 1.24 billion yuan. It is
based on three pillars, namely, aviation equipment, railway
transportation equipment and motor vehicles. Yanliang, the aircraft
town of Xi'an, is nicknamed as "Seattle of China". Pharmaceutical
production is the second largest industry of the city. Its main
producers include the Xi'an Janssen Pharmaceutical Co., the Xi'an
Pharmaceutical Factory and the Xi'an Sanhaidan Group Company.
The Xi'an Manufacturing Company, which
makes
electric machinery, is a famous manufacturer of electricity
transmission and transformation equipment in China. Other major
industries of Xi'an include electronics and communications equipment,
special equipment, general machinery, meters and instruments, cultural
and office machinery, textiles, chemicals, printing, and duplicating
industry.
The other economic pillars of
the city include the sectors of wholesale, retail and catering trade;
finance and insurance; the sectors of transportation, storage and
postal and telecommunications; the sector of construction; the sectors
of scientific research and comprehensive technological services; and
the sector of social services.
As a
world-famous ancient capital, Xi'an is superior to any other city in
the world in terms of ground and underground cultural and historical
relics, which belong to different periods in history. It has over 300
key places for cultural relic protection, including 16 of the State
class and 68 of the provincial class. It also has beautiful natural
landscapes featuring famous mountains and rivers. It is unique in the
world for a super-large central city in terms of both artificial scenes
and natural landscapes. Plus its good geographical conditions and
convenient communications, the city has very good conditions to develop
tourism with its own characteristics and advantages.
In building itself into an
export-oriented city,
Xi'an has opened wider to the outside world, improved its investment
environment and increased the use of external capital by following the
guideline of "opening to promote development." To create a good
investment environment for foreign investors, it has set up the
state-level Xi'an New and High-Tech Development Zone, the Xi'an
Economic and Technological Development Zone, the Xi'an Qujiang Tourist
& Vacation Zone, the Xi'an Weiyang Lake Tourist &
Vacation Zone, the Xi'an Baqiao Comprehensive Economic Development
Zone, and the Xi'an Yanliang Economic Development Zone.
Xi'an Attractions
The greatest of
the attraction
in Xian is perhaps the Xian
City Wall, which was erected by the emperor
Zhu Yuanzhang during the period of Ming dynasty. The City Wall was
actually erected to widen the wall that was built during the reign of
Tang Dynasty. This is regarded as the country 's best preserved city
wall and is the world 's largest ancient military defensive system.
Another
great attraction in the city is Xian
Bell Tower and Drum
Tower, which
was built during the period of the Ming Dynasty. No visit to Xian would
be complete without taking a tour to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda,
which
consists of three classifications such as Big Wild Goose Pagoda -
rising up to a height of 65 meters with seven stories; North Square of
Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is credited to be Asia 's
biggest fountain
square; and Da Ci'en
Temple, within which the Bell Tower and the Drum
Tower are housed, apart from a range of other richly adorned
attractions like Sermon
Hall, the Hall
of Mahavira, and the Hall
of
Xuanzang Sanzang.
Other
not to miss attractions in the city are Terracotta Army Museum,
whose
focal point is terra cotta warrior lined in a real battle formation; Shaanxi Provincial History Museum,
a museum of the national level which
has on display more than 110,000 artifacts; Xian Famen Temple, an
exciting shrine with an interesting history; Xian Great Mosque, a
grand
mosque which was once a prominent religious center of Arab merchants in
the country and now serves more than 50000 Chinese Muslims in the area.
Forest
of Stone Steles Museum, boasting of largest collection of
steles in the
country; Banpo Neolithic
Village Museum, where you can find the remains
of Neolithic people; and Xian
Huaqing Hot Springs. When comes to
activities, visitors to Xian can enjoy a range of activities from
shopping to dining.
With these superb varieties
of attractions, it is no wonder why people from across the world flock
to this amazing destination.
Source:
WJaegel
Getting There
By Plane
Xi'an Xianyang International Airport
(IATA: XIY)
is located 40 km northwest of the city center. Flights are available to
Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dunhuang, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Harbin,
Hohhot, Kunming, Lhasa, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Urumqi, Wuhan, and
Xining within China, International flights are available to Bangkok,
Hong Kong, Macau, Seoul as well as Nagoya, Fukuoka, Niigata, Tokyo and
Hiroshima in Japan.
Most
people use taxicabs or the airport bus to reach town from the airport.
Be careful though, one of the airport buses (from the airport to the
Drum Tower) will try their absolute best to sell you expensive plane
tickets and then upon getting off the bus you'll be hounded by a few
dozen more touts and a large concentration people begging for money
that were all seemingly waiting for you to get off that bus. It's
probably best to avoid this route and take the bus to the train station
instead.
By Train
There
are plenty of trains transporting passengers to and from most of the
major cities inside China. Located at the center of China, it often
takes one day to travel from Xian to other cities by train.
Xian
Station - located at the north end of Jiefang Lu (解放路）
Approximate
journey times to other major cities:
Beijing
14-18 hours, Chengdu 16-27 hours, Chongqing 14 hours, Guangzhou 24
hours, Kunming 36-53 hours, Lanzhou 10-13 hours, Lhasa 36 hours,
Shanghai 18-24 hours, Urumqi 31-56 hours, Wuhan 14-18 hours and
Zhengzhou 7 hours.
In
Xian, it is very convenient for you to get to the railway station by
city bus wherever you are. But please pay attention that there are
several stops around the station. Fortunately, all of them are no more
than 200 meters from the station.
By
Bus
The
main long-distance bus station is located across from main railway
station
Approximate
journey times to major local cities:
Huashan
2-3 hours, Lanzhou 8-10 hours, Luoyang 7-10 hours, Taiyuan 12 hours and
Zhengzhou about 9-12 hours.
By
Car
Traffic
is heavy, right of way is unheard of, the rule of thumb is keep going
no matter what (although drivers do note red lights).
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