CIVR2010-Welcome

Home

News

Call for Paper

Important Dates

Committee

Registration

Programe

Sponsors

Accommodation

Venue

Contact

Venue

Welcome to Xi'an
A world-famous tourist city and a treasure house of cultural relics.

Introduction
Xi'an, the eternal city, records the great changes of the Chinese nation just
like a living history book. Called Chang'an in ancient times, Xian is one of
the birthplaces of the ancient civilization in the Yellow River Basin area of
the country. During Xian's 3,100 year development, 13 dynasties such as
Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang placed their capitals here. So far, Xian enjoys
equal fame with Athens, Cario, and Rome as one of the four major ancient
civilization capitals.

Xian is the capital of Shaanxi province, located in the southern part of
the GuanZhong Plain. With the Qinling Mountains to the north and the
Weihe River to the south, it is in a favorable geographical location
surrounded by water and hills. It has a semi-moist monsoon climate and
there is a clear distinction between the four seasons. Except the colder winter,
any season is relatively suitable for traveling. The cultural and historical
significance of the area, as well as the abundant relics and sites, help Xian
enjoy the laudatory title of "Natural History Museum". The Museum of
Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses is praised as "the eighth major miracle of
the world", Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is listed on the World
Heritage List, and the City Wall of the Ming Dynasty is the largest and
most intact Ming Dynasty castle in the world. In the city, there is the
3000 year old Banpo Village Remains from the Neolithic Age,and the
Forest of Stone Steles that holds 3,000 stone steles of different periods
from the HanDynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Around Xi'an, the Famen Temple
enjoys the reputation of being the "forefather of pagodas and temples
in Central Shaanxi,"

because it holds the finger bones of Sakyamuni--the founder of Buddhism. The natural landscape around Xian is also marvelous.
Mt. Huashan,as one of the five best-known mountains in China, is famous for its breath-taking cliffs and its unique characteristics.

As tourist development grows in Xian, the hotel industry flourishes more and more. It is very easy to find a hotel in Xian, ranging
from 5 star hotels to youth hostels. Of course, it will be any traveler's first choice to stay in the city center due to the superior
geographical location and the convenient transportation.

Xian is the most important city in northwest China, and so there are a lot of shopping outlets for locals and tourists alike. There are
many big shopping centers, department stores and supermarkets in and around Xian city - the biggest and most comprehensive
being Kai Yuan Shopping Mall and Century Ginwa Shopping Mall.

Xian Attractions

Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses

The well-known Terra-cotta Museum is located
east of Emperor Qin's Mausoleum, which covers
a total area of 20 hectares. The museum is decorated
with verdant trees,blooming flowers and carpets of
green grass. The scenery in the museum looks quite
elegant and delightful. Three main buildings of the
museum, which were named Pit 1, Pit 2, Pit 3, were
constructed on their original sites in different periods
of time.

Emperor Qin's Terra-cotta Museum is not only a treasure
housewhere the tourists can learn history, culture and
human civilization, but also a main scenic spot of Xi'an
city. It can receive about 1.5 million tourists annually.
Approximately 40 million visitors from home and abroad
have visited the Museum within the last 20 years. Today
"the eighth Wonder of the world"has almost become
synonym of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses In 1987,
the Emperor Qin's Mausoleum was put on the list of the
UNESCO as a world-class culturalheritage site. Now the
Museum is well-known widelyas a huge modern on-site
museum and it is going to be one of the best
in the world.

Bell Tower (Zhong Lou)

The Bell Tower, is a stately traditional building,
that marksthe geographical center of the ancient
capital. From this important landmark extend East,
South,West and North Streets, connecting the Tower
to the East, South, West andNorth Gates of the
City Wall of the Ming Dynasty.

The wooden tower, which is the largest and
best-preserved of its kind in China, is 36 meters
(118 feet) high. It stands on a brick base 35.5
meters (116.4 feet) long and 8.6 meters (28.2 feet)
high on each side. During the Ming Dynasty, Xi'an
was an important military town in Northwest China,
a fact that is reflected in the size and historic
significance of its tower

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 abundantfood 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.

Every 120 meters, there is a rampart which extends out from
the main wall. All together, there are 98 ramparts on the wall,
which were built to defend against the enemy climbing up the
wall. Each rampart has a sentry building, in which the soldiers
could protect the entire wall without exposing themselves to
the enemy.Besides, the distance between every two ramparts
is just within the range of an arrow shot from either side, so that
they could shoot the enemy, who wanted to attack the city, from
the side. On the outer side of the city wall, there are 5948
crenellations,namely battlements. The soldiers can outlook and
shoot at theenemy. On the inner side, parapets were built to
protect the soldiers from falling off.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

As the symbol of the old-line Xian, Big Wild Goose
Pagodais a well-preserved ancient building and a holy
place for Buddhists.It is located in the southern suburb
of Xian City, about 4 kilometers (2.49 miles) from the
downtown of the city. Standing in the Da Ci'en Temple
complex, it attracts numerous visitors for its fame in the
Buddhist religion, its simple but appealing style of
construction, and its new square in front of the temple.
It is rated as a National Key Cultural Relic Preserveas
well as an AAAA Tourist Attraction.This attraction
can be divided into three parts: the Big Wild Goose
Pagoda, the Da Ci'en Temple,and the North Square
of Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

Forest of Stone 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 southgate of Xian City Wall. It was initially
established in AD 1087 when some precious stone
steles were moved here for safe keeping, including
the "Classic on Filial Piety" written by Emperor
Xuanzong in AD 745 and "the Kaicheng Stone Steles"
arved in AD 837. With an area of 31,000 square meters,
the Forest of Stone Steles used to be the principal
museum for Shaan'xi 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.

Famen Temple

In China, many temples house treasures and artifacts,
but the sheer quantity and quality of treasures in the
Famen Temple is rare. Situated in Famen Town of
FufengCounty, about 120 kilometers (about 74.57 miles)
west of Xian,Famen Temple is renowned for storing
the veritablefour sliversof the finger bone of the
Sakyamuni Buddha. Famen Temple was established
in the Eastern Han Dynasty(25--220), for carrying
forward Buddhism. The most representativestructures
in the temple are the Famen Temple Pagoda and
Famen Temple Museum.

Mt. Huashan

As one of the five best-known mountains in China,
Mt. Huashanis located to the south of Huayin city,
120 kilometers east of Xian, in Shaanxi province,
with an elevation of 2200 meters above sea level.
In ancient times, Mt. Huashan was called Mt.
Taihuashan. Seen from afar, the five peaks looks
like five petals of a flower. Hence its name,
Mt. Huashan (= five flowers). Today, it is listed
as oneof the renowned national scenic spots

Huaqing Hot Springs

Situated at the northern foot of Mt. Lishan in Lintong County,
30 kilometers (18.6 miles)from Xian City, Huaqing Hot Spring is
famed for both its dainty spring scenery and the romantic love
story of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) and his concubine Yang
Guifei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Its long history and location
among the wonderful landscapes of Xian should entice any visitor
to visit and bathe in this hot spring.It is said that King You built a
palace here during the Western Zhou Dynasty . Additions were
subsequently made by the First Emperor Qing (259 BC-210BC)
and Emperor Wu during the WesternHan Dynasty (206 BC-24).

During his reign, the Emperor Xuanzong spent
dizzying amounts ofhis funds to build a luxurious
palace, changing its name to Huaqing Hot Spring
or Huaqing Palace. Over the course of 41 years in
his days,he visited the palace as many as 36 times.
The palace thus has a history of 3,000 years and
the hotspring a history of 6,000 years!Ranked among
the Hundred Famous Garden in China,it is also has
the status as a National Cultural Relic Protection
Unit and a National Key Scenic Area.

Tang Paradise

Near the Big Wild Goose Pagoda , Tang Paradise
is located in the Qujiang Resort, southeast of the
Xian City, Shaanxi Province. It is a newly opened
tourist attraction in April, 2005. Tang Paradise
covers a total area of 1000 mu (about 165 acres)
and of which 300 mu (about 49 acres) is water.
This tourist attraction not only claims to be the biggest
cultural theme park in the northwest region of China
but also the first royal-garden-like park to give a full
display of the Tang Dynasty's (618-907) culture.

What makes Tang Paradise incredible is that it is no
longer the garden modeof only water and mountains
in the Chinese traditional sense. The outstanding
designers of the magnificent Tang Paradise have
integrated almost everything representative of the
Tang Dynasty, such as the poetry, the songs and
dance,the marketplaces, the food, the women's
lifestyles, and science into every site using cultural
themes, thus endowing every place with its own
story and its own place in the tapestryof Tang
Dynasty culture.

Additional attractions are:

Small Wild Goose Pagoda

Qian Mausoleum (Qian Ling)

Shaanxi Provincial History Museum

Banpo Village Remains

Drum Tower

Mausoleum of Western Han Emperor Liu Qi (Hanyangling)

Huangdi Mausoleum Scenic Spot

Hukou Waterfalls (Kettle Spout Falls)

Dining of Xian
Xian is legendary as "the capital of table delicacies." The ancient city is famous for the delicious
Shaanxi snack, the delicate Guangdong cuisine, various kinds of fashionable foreign delicacies,
and the popular Sichuan cuisine, such as hot pot.

Local Food

Visitors to Xian must do two things: one is to see the clay figures of terra cotta
warriors and horses. The other is to taste Yang Rou Pao Mo (a soup dish that
involves breaking wheat flour flat bread into a bowl and adding a delicious
mutton stock). Before dinner, you will be served one or two pieces of wheat
flour flat bread which you into tiny chunks, the smaller the better. The waiter
or the waitress will then hand your bowl to the cook who mixes the bread
and mutton soup with an appropriate relish. When the steaming hot meal is
brought in, the waiter will also offer you sweet crisp pickled garlic, coriander,
and hot pepper sauce. The most famous, the Tong Sheng Xiang
(Prosperity and Fortune) Beef and Lamb Paomo Restaurant done in
Tang Dynasty style, is a time-honored establishment in the Xian Bell
and Drum Tower Square.

Next to Tong Sheng Xiang is a great restaurant, De Fa Chang Dumpling
Restaurant, with its own version of the Dumpling Banquet. Ingredients
for the dumpling fillings include various meats, vegetables, and seasonings.
Cooking methods include steaming, boiling, pan-frying, deep frying, and
roasting. Many flavors, including salty, sweet, hot, and sour are offered.
Other house specialties include Peking dumplings, steamed sweet bean
paste buns, steamed shrimp paste buns, and various uniquely spiced dishes.
While guests sample various delicacies, traditionally waiters will explain
the cuisine culture of each dumpling.

One of Xian's most famous specialties is the Guan Tang Baozi (steamed buns served
with sauces inside) served at Jia Brothers' Restaurant in Muslim Snack Street. You'll
know you're there when you see the monstrous blue arch over the entrance and a wall
festooned with photographs of Xian notables -- TV hosts, writers, and musicians.
The specialty dish is Guan Tang Bao Zi, with a choice of beef, lamb or "three flavors"
-- lamb, mushroom, and prawns. The buns havepiping-hot soup inside, so caution
is advised. This dish is best washed down with Ba Bao Xi Fan, a bowl of sweet rice
porridge filled with peanuts, sultanas, hawthorn, and medlar berries.

Fanji is the famous vendor of Shaanxi's most widely consumed snack, Rou Jia Mo,
finely chopped pork stuffed in toasted wheat flour flat bread. A piece of good-quality
(youzhi) bread and a bowl of mung bean flour soup will cost you no more than RMB10.
The state-run atmosphere is quaint and friendly, and the numerous awards that decorate
the walls are welldeserved. The restaurant is in a lane opposite the Drum Tower,
south of West Main Street.

A fascinating lure for food buffs is Local Snacks Street (Hui Min Jie) near Drum
Tower in Muslim Square. On the two sides of the 500-meter street, there are many
restaurants of different cuisines along with unique snack shops. While
enjoying true Muslim cuisine, tourists can learn customs of the Hui people.
Besides guan tang baozi in Jia Brothers' Restaurant, there is barbeque in the Pingwa
Kaorou Shop, sour cabbage and beef fried rice in Honghong Suancai Chaomi Restraunt,
and beef noodles in Yifenli Restaurant. Other offerings, including fried persimmon cake
(shi zi bing), fried dumpling (guo tie), stir-fried bean jelly (chao liang fen), chopped
mutton fried in a wok with fine-ground wheat (fen zheng rou), and beef and vegetable
pie (xi'an bing) are available on both sides of the street.

If you would like to taste all the local food at one time in a budget meal, Xian Restaurant
(Xian Fan Zhuang) offers more than 100 varieties in its first-floor self-service restaurant.
It charges only RMB18 per person, and is very popular with visitors. As the center of northwest China, Xian provides a wide range of table delicacies in addition
to local and traditional cuisine.

Please visit ChinaTravelGide to get more information about XI'AN

Note:The above information comes from the Internet.The copyright of the text and photos belong to their owners.