Xi'an Travel Guide

Xi'an is located in central china and is the capital of Shaanxi Province, was formerly known as Chang'an.

Xi'an is bounded by the Qinling Ranges in the south and the Weihe River in the north. As one of China's 7 ancient national capitals and which serverd as the capital for twelve dynasties, approx 1,000 years.

More than 4,000 historical places and tombs have been excavated and approx 120,000 historical relics remain unearthed.

The main tourist attractions include the Stele Forest, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Terra cotta Warriors and Horses, Famen Temple, Banpo Museum, Great Mosque, Maoling Mausoleum and QianLing Mausoleum.

In 1900s, as part of the economic revival of interior China, generally for the northwest regions and the central, Xi'an has re-emerged as an important cultural, educational and industrial center of the central-northwest region, with facilities for development and research, national security and space exploration program of China.

Origin of Name: The 2 Chinese character in the name "Xi' an" that mean Western Peace. However, the Xi'anese pronunciation of Xi'an is almost the same as the Standard Mandarin pronunciation in Hanyu Pinyin.

Name of Xi'an derive from the period of the Ming Dynasty, when was named "Changan". It also resulted in several names as: Fenghao, Xianyang, Fengyuan, Anxi, Jingzhao and Xijing.

Xi'an retained the name approx until 1928, until it was named again Xijing in 1930. It was once again reverted back to its Ming era name of Xi'an in the year 1943.

Shaanxi province: Also known as Qin or Shaan is one the birthplaces of civilization of China. Beishan Mountain and the Qinling Range stand as 2 boundaries that separated the province into 3 natural areas: the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, Guangzhong Plain, and the Qinba Hillyland.

Other info:
� Country: China
� Area: 9, 983 km2
� Population: 8 million
� Districts: 13
� Mayor: Chen Boagen
� Language: Shaanxi Hua dialect

Xi'an History