XI'an-The Oldest Ancient Capital City
Xi'an is considered the oldest of China's ancient capitals. In China's History, it was the city that had
been a capital for the longest time,as well as the first metropolis whose population had surpassed the one million mark. As China's political and cultural center,Xi'an has gathered the most essential elements of Chinese civilization.From the ancient Silk Road to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor,there are over 4,000 ancient mausoleums,ancient city walls and palaces.This earned Xi'an the reputation for being China's ˇ°Natural History Museum.ˇ±As a tourist attraction, to the foreign visitors,Xi'an is a city that is rich in ancient oriental charm ,with the cream of Chinese culture consolidating in the city itself.
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and Terracotta Warriors are synonymous with Xi'an itself. Since their discovery in 1974,they are hailed as the ˇ°World's Eighth Wonderˇ±and the ˇ°Greatest Archaeological Discovery of the 20th Centuryˇ±.
However,this thousand-year-old city still offers a number of symbolic cultural spots,and is also a good place for living.Because tasty food can be found everywhere in Xi'an and tasty food together with long history has become the cultural symbol of old city of Xi'an.Xi'an's ancient city wall is an important historical site,and is one of Xi'an culture symbols.It is the largest and most well preserved city wall of China today.The ancient wall is sill in existence today dates back 1,400 years,since extension work was carried out by the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang on the original sites of the Sui and Tang dynasties. The ancient wall has 18 city gates.They are essential to Xi'an's transportation system.For the tourist or the resident of the city who has pass these routes every day ,one can always feel the rich historical and cultural ambiance of the city.
