Xi'an City Wall

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Many cities in China once had massive defensive walls to thwart invading armies. Among the few city walls that remain, the one of Xi'an is undoubtedly the most impressive and photogenic. Meanwhile, 600-year-old Xi’an City Wall also is one of the largest well-preserved ancient military defensive systems in the world. It becomes the emblem of this ancient capital city attracts visitors all over the world including famous former US president Bill Clinton. Combined City Wall with its attached forest belt, moat and ring roads, it becomes a vivid city park. It is the ideal place for local residents doing morning exercises and cycling.

One of the greatest gates of the Xian ancient city wall.	One man took a photo on the City Wall.

The City Wall can be traced back to 1400 years ago but the current remains has a history of more than 600 years and rebuilt in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) as military defense system based on the city wall of Tang Dynasty structures. The Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (1st Emperor of Ming Dynasty) took the strategy of "Build High Defense Wall and Store sufficient Subsistence before taking power" and aimed on defender strategy by building the city wall in Xi'an. With this strategy, the City Wall of Xian features heavily THICK. You can see that the thickness of the ancient city wall is much thicker than the height of it, even it allows the drill of cavalry on the wall roof.

The sloped, rectangular wall is 14 km (8.7 mi) and encloses the old center of Xi'an. The height of the Xi'an City Wall of today averages 12 m (40 ft). The whole wall system consists of moat, drawbridge, ramparts, embrasure towers, the main tower, turrets, watchtowers, parapets and crenels.

The open space on the ancient city wall.	Xian city view from the City Wall.

There are four city gates of the wall located in the east, west, north and south of the city and each gate has a structure of Archery Tower, Drawbridge Tower and the Main Tower for the final entrance of the city. The Drawbridge Tower is outmost gate has main function that lifting the bridge on the moat. The second gate is Archery Tower has function for archer shooting to prevent enemies’ attack. The open space between the Archery Tower and Main Tower, with a brick wall fence outside the city gate but enclosed by bounding wall, is called “Wengcheng” where is the place for rally the troops. Wengcheng has a special road without stairs for cavalry riding on the top of city wall.

Each corner of the wall has an imposing watchtower. Between those watchtowers are smaller lookouts in the form of projecting ramparts. They are spaced at 120 m (400 ft) intervals. These 98 ramparts assure that arrows can reach any point along the wall where the enemy may be attacking. The wall between the ramparts is crenelated (notched) for shooting and shielding.

One of the south gates of the Xian City Wall	Watch towers besides the moat of the Xian City Wall

There is an 11 m (36 ft) wide roadway on top of the wall. It was designed to allow a large number of soldiers to move rapidly to any section that was being attacked. Inner side wall has 0.75 m (2.5 ft) in height called parapet for prevent soldiers falling.

Therefore, it is very difficult for enemies to capture the Xi’an due to the solid city wall. In a word, the Xi’an City Wall has high value in city construction, history, military and architecture in ancient time.

Cycling on the City Wall

You can tour Xian ancient city wall including moat, hanging bridges, battlements, watchtowers, tunnels and parapet. According to such a series of military defense systems, you may experience the warfare in the ancient time. Today, the roadway is a promenade enjoyed by strolling tourists (dusk is amazing) and bicyclists (you can rent bikes on the wall for 20 RMB per 1.5 hours). Tandem bicycle is good for lovers only cost 40 RMB per 1.5 hours. Cycling on the wall is becoming very popular for family tours especially for children.

Many people tour City Wall by bicycle.	The open space on the ancient city wall is good for cycling.

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	Cycling on the City Wall		Defu Lane
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