The
Shaanxi Historical Museum, a large-scale
modern State-class museum, is situated at
the western side of the "Wild Goose
Pagoda" in Xian City. It covers an
area of about 70,000 square meters, the
architectural area of which is 55,000 odd
square meters. It was completed on June
20, 1991 and open to the public.
The Museum is divided into three main parts
all for overall display, hall for temporary
display and hall for display on special
topics. There are over 3000 pieces of cultural
relics on display; they are the cream of
cultural relics selected from among the
hundreds of thousands of cultural relics,
the majority of which are worldly treasures.
The Bell Tower is situated in Xian city,
capital of Shaanxi Province. In the beginning
it was constructed in the 17th year of Emperor
Hong Wu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1384)
at now Guangji street cross and in the 10th
year of Wanli removed to the present site.
The construction of the three storeyed Bell
Tower has multi-eaves, sunken cornices and
pinnacles with turning corners. The building
basement area is 1377.4 square meters with
four gateways connecting four streets. Each
of the four sides of the building pedestal
is 35.5 m broad and 8.6 m high. The height
of the building is 27.4 m while it is 36
m high from ground to top. The architecture
is grand and the art is superb. Ascending
the tower to look around, one can get the
bird's-eye view of the whole panorama of
the ancient Xian city
The magnificent and grandiose Xian City
Wall was constructed in the early Ming Dynasty
on the basis of the Imperial City of Chang
An (Everlasting Peace) of the Tang Dynasty.
It is also a symbol of great significance
of the famous historic cultural city of
Xian. One of the features of the Xian Wall
lies in the fact that it has been preserved
intact, which is rarely seen in the world.
The construction of the Xian City was formally
started in the seventh year of Emperor Hongwu's
reign (1374) and completed in the eleventh
year of Hongwu's reign (1378). After its
completion, the circumference of the city
wall was 13.75 kilometers long in an oblong
shape. Its height is 12 meters; its top
is 12-14 meters wide and its base, 15-18
meters wide. At the four corners are watchtowers
at each. Outside the wall are moats. There
are four city gates, and to each of them
are three tower entrances: sluice tower,
embrasures watchtower and the main tower
and in between are enceinte. There are 98
watching enemy platforms between the watchtowers
and the city gates, protruding over the
city wall, and on the platform the towers
for watching the enemy are built, which
is not only convenient for watching the
enemy, but also to shoot them with bows
and arrows from three sides and firing wooden
cannon stones by taking the advantages between
the position like two sides of a horse face
and the city wall, inflicting casualties
on the attacking enemy. There are 5984 crenels
served as lookout posts, firing at the enemy
and shield of protection. They formed a
close engineering system of defense.
The magnificent and grandiose Xian City
Wall was constructed in the early Ming Dynasty
on the basis of the Imperial City of Chang
An (Everlasting Peace) of the Tang Dynasty.
It is also a symbol of great significance
of the famous historic cultural city of
Xian. One of the features of the Xian Wall
lies in the fact that it has been preserved
intact, which is rarely seen in the world.
The construction of the Xian City was formally
started in the seventh year of Emperor Hongwu's
reign (1374) and completed in the eleventh
year of Hongwu's reign (1378). After its
completion, the circumference of the city
wall was 13.75 kilometers long in an oblong
shape. Its height is 12 meters; its top
is 12-14 meters wide and its base, 15-18
meters wide. At the four corners are watchtowers
at each. Outside the wall are moats. There
are four city gates, and to each of them
are three tower entrances: sluice tower,
embrasures watchtower and the main tower
and in between are enceinte. There are 98
watching enemy platforms between the watchtowers
and the city gates, protruding over the
city wall, and on the platform the towers
for watching the enemy are built, which
is not only convenient for watching the
enemy, but also to shoot them with bows
and arrows from three sides and firing wooden
cannon stones by taking the advantages between
the position like two sides of a horse face
and the city wall, inflicting casualties
on the attacking enemy. There are 5984 crenels
served as lookout posts, firing at the enemy
and shield of protection. They formed a
close engineering system of defense.
After repair and protection, the Xian City
Wall now presents a three-dimensional distribution
with the city wall, city moats, forest belt
and city ring-routes combined into four-in-one
grandeur in perfect harmony, each shining
more brilliantly in the other.
The Wild Goose Pagoda is situated at the
Benevolence Temple to the south of Xian
City, Shaanxi Province. The temple was originally
known as Wulou Temple (literally no leaking
) in the Sui dynasty. In the 21st year (647
AD.) of Emperor Zhenguan rein of Tang dynasty,
Prince Li Zhi (who later succeeded to the
thrown as Emperor Gaozhong) reconstructed
the Temple into Grand Benevolence Temple
in commemoration of his of his mother Empress
Wan De.
When Xuanzhuang, the Tang Monk, after acquiring
the scriptures of Buddhism from India, returned
to his motherland, he was lodged in the
grand Benevolence Temple for the translation
of the scriptures. In the 3rd year of Emperor
Yongwei's rein of the Tang Dynasty, the
Pagoda was built after the style of the
Western Regions for the storage of the translation
version of Buddhist scriptures. It was a
five storeyed building at the beginning
and the built into 7 storeys when the Empress
Wuzetian was in power. The Pagoda is square
in shape, 64 meters high with spiral staircase
leading up to the top. There are structural
design and Bodhisattva image delicately
carved on the lintels on four sides. At
the lower part of the Pagoda are two stone
tablets on which are engraved Preface of
the Holy Teaching and the Narration Record
of the Holy Teaching by Chu Suiliang, the
calligrapher of the Tang dynasty and on
the brim of the stone tablets are relief
sculptures of musicians and dancers.
Xuanzhuang (602-664) generally known as
the Master of the Law (Tripitaka of Buddhism),
customarily called Tang Monk was the famous
scholar of Buddhism and great traveler and
the Founder of Benevolence and Philanthropy
of Buddhism.
For detailed information,
please drop in an email and you will get
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john@chinahuangshan.com
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