The City Wall

The square-shaped Xian city wall is in downtown Xian, 12 meters in width at the top. Xian city is enclosed by walls in all four directions, solemnly watching over this ancient city. The east wall stretches 2590 meters long, the west wall, 2631.2 meters, the south wall, 3441.6 meters, and the north wall, 3241 meters, 13.7 kilometers in circumference. There are four gates carved into the wall, the Changle Gate in the east, the Anding gate in the west, the Yongning gate to the south and the Anyuan gate in the north.

The Xian City Wall was built under the administration of Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor and founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE) and was renovated during subsequent dynasties, making it more than 600 years old and the best-preserved city wall in China. On each city gate, three gate towers named Zhenglou, Jianlou and Zhaloun respectively can be seen. On Jianlou tower, a small square-shaped window is outfitted both in front and besides, which is traditionally where archers would be stationed. Zhenglou stands innermost, which is the main entrance to the city. Jianlou and Zhenglou Towers are connected by city walls and the area squeezed between walls is called ‘Wong Cheng’, which is mainly used to station soldiers. In Wong Cheng, sloped horse paths leading to the entrance of city are built to allow for horses to pass.