Before Ming Dynasty
The city wall was a traditional defense installation in cities in ancient China. It was first seen on the Banpo remain dating back to 6000 years ago. People living in Banpo dug trenches around their residences to defend themselves from wild animals and other tribes. If the Banpo villages are recognized as the initial sprout of cities, the ditches are the city walls at that time. After people have learned to build walls, the city walls have naturally come into being along with the development of cities as a remarkable symbol of those ancient cities. According to historical records, “in late primitive society, about 4500 years ago, people built inner city to guard the emperor and outer city to inhabit, which was the starting of building cities.’’ As an ancient capital for thousands of years, Xi’an city wall has been rebuilt in many dynasties, yet those old ones have been buried under the dust of history, and the city wall we seen now can be dated back to Sui dynasty(the 6th century AD)
Xi’an city wall has been built on the foundation of the imperial city of Tang dynasty and it has suffered great damage because of frequent warfares in late Tang dynasty. In the first year of period of Tianyou(904AD), Han Jian, the military governor of You Guo army who was on garrison duty of Chang’an reconstructed the city of Chang’an since the old city was too big to defend. The outer city was not rebuilt, instead, only the imperial city was rebuilt by closing the Zhuque Gate, Anfu Gate and Yanxi Gate and opening Xuanwu Gate in the north for a more effective defense, yet no extension and modification was made to the city wall.
The scale of the city wall hasn’t been changed during the following five dynasties, namely, the Later Tang Dynasty, the Later Jin Dynasty, the Later Han Dynasty, the Later Zhou Dynasty and Song dynasty, until Yuan dynasty, though the names and organizational system have changed many times. As an important city in northwest, Xi’an was called Fengyuan in Yuan dynasty. In March, the 2nd year of the period of Hongwu(1369AD), Xu Da, a senior general from Shanxi province crossed the Yellow River and entered Shaanxi province, and with the guard general running away, he captured Fengyuan City. Soon after that, the imperial court renamed the city Xi’an. That’s how the city got its name.
During Ming Dynasty
In 1369AD, after Xu Da, the senior general entered Shaanxi province, the city Fengyuan has been renamed Xi’an, meaning a permanent political stability in the west, thus, the rule of the Ming dynasty began as well as the construction of the city wall in Xi’an.
Before the establishment of Ming dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the unification of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the city wall building throughout the country. Owing to its extreme high political and military position in Chinese history, the imperial court of Ming dynasty has attached greater importance to the construction of the city wall in Xi’an. Zhu Yuanzhang believed that “the central Shaanxi province is the most precipitous and secure place among all the land under heaven”. Under the great mass fervor of building cities throughout the country in Ming dynasty, the city wall in Xi’an has been extended and built under the charge of Pu Ying, the governor on the foundation of the old city.
Over a span of 8 years from the 3rd to the 11th of the period of Hongwu (1370-1378), the construction of the city wall has been completed with magnificent pattern, carefully designed functions and rectangle shape.
Entirely based on the strategic system of defense, the thickness of the city wall outweighs its height to guarantee its stoutness. One can even drive a car or drill the army on the city wall. The city wall consists of a series of military installations including the moat, suspension bridge, Zhalou(controls the suspension bridge), Jianlou(arrow tower), Zhenglou(gate tower), turret, ramparts, parapet wall and crenel.
After the extension, the east wall is 2590 meters long, west 2631.2 meters, south 3441.1 meters and north 3241 meters, with the perimeter 13.75 kilometers long. The wall now takes a rectangle shape and stands 12 meters (40 feet) tall, 12-14 meters (40-46 feet) wide at the top and 15-18 meters (50-60 feet) thick at the bottom, with a turret at each of the four corners and a deep moat surrounding it. Every 120 meters, there is a rampart which extends out from the main wall, with equal height of the city wall, which were built to defend against the enemy climbing up the wall. 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.Each rampart has a sentry building, in which the soldiers could protect the entire wall without exposing themselves to the enemy. Altogether, there are 98 ramparts on the wall, each with a watchtower to station troops.
In Xian, the city wall includes four gates and they are respectively named as Changle (meaning eternal joy) in the east, Anding (harmonious peace) in the west, Yongning (eternal peace) in the south and Anyuan (forever harmony) in the north.Each city gate has three gate towers: Zhalou, Jianlou andZhenglou. Zhenglou is 32 meters tall, over 40 meters long and it is in the style of gable and hip roof, with its four corners up warping and three eaves. There are winding corridors at the bottom, in graceful ancient color and style, towering and magnificent.
Initially, the wall was built with layers of dirt, with the base layer including also lime and glutinous rice extract. Later, black bricks were covered on the inner and outer surface as well as the top. There was a water channel piled by black bricks every 40-60 meters for draining away water, which played a very important role in the conservation of the city wallin the long run.
The present city wall of Ming dynasty is built on the foundation of the original, and it is the most completely preserved ancient city wall in China.
During the Republic of China ( 1912-1949 )
Early in the Republic of China, four Zhalou and their corresponding walls were torn down, Zhenglou on the North Gate and Jianlou on the South Gate were destroyed successively during the Revolution of 1911 and warfares during the defense of Chang’an by general Yang Hucheng and Li Huchen. During the Anti-Japanese War, part of the city wall has been used as air-raid shelter and suffered great damage. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, some of the turrets and ramparts and most of the crenellations and parapet walls have been torn down. Much of the walls have been broken through to form breaches to develop transportation. Till 1983, only 6 gate towers and arrow towers remained, with 14 trenches. Since 1983, the only around-city park was built along the city walls. At the end of the 1990s, the municipal government carried out the Cutting-through Project, connecting all the trenches formed in modern times and realized the complete cutting-through of the Xi’an city wall by 2005.
Currently
Since 2004, as a carrier of the rejuvenation project of this ancient city, the city wall in Xi’an is becoming a core part of the historic culture in Xi’an, a significant brand reflecting characteristics of Xi’an as a humanistic city, ancient capital and aidiomaticalname card of Xi’an.
In the construction project of the city wall, the connection of the city walls in the railway station section was completed on time, the entire length of the moat has been desilted, with 130,000 m3sludge got rid of, training works of the test section of the moat was completed and the illumination of the entire city wall was accomplished, with the illumination of the section connecting the railway station becoming a new night scene of Xi’an.In the aspect of tourist culture activities, we held a variety of activities includingChang’anAncient Music Culture Week, Lantern Show in the theme of A Sleepless City on Lantern Festival in the capital of Tang Dynasty, Appreciating the Moon during the Mid-autumn Festival, blessing ceremony during spring festival named Bells in Heyday, Pray for Chang’anand International Marathon on the city wall. We make sure that more than ten large-scaled cultural tourist activities are held each year, making it an unique cultural brand in the scenic spot, among which the blessing ceremony named Bells in Heyday, Pray for Chang’an will be settled as a special activity in the scenic spot and an important folkblessing ceremony during spring festival. We have undertaken a series oflarge-scaled activities successively on the city wall, including the fifteenth convention of the board of directors of international historical sites, the twelfthAdvertising Festival, the first Euro-Asia Economic Forum, Mobile Film Festival, Tours on the city wall for the distinguished guestsof grand ceremonies in Xi’an, which has greatly enhanced the reputation and influence of the city wall.In the aspect of preservation of cultural relics, we have formed record files of the national key cultural relics protection units for reference, lunched the application for the list of world heritage, having the city wall listed on the tentative list of world cultural heritagein China. We repaired the gate tower of the south gate and covered the bare part of the south wall. We conducted maintenance at different levels and focus according to the seriousness of the damages of the walls and other ancient buildings on the city wall. We also established inspection system for the preservation of the city wall, confirmed 26 key observation parts on the outer walls, installed observation signboards, ensured observation point and reference number to enhance the daily inspection of the city wall together with other ancient buildings.In the aspect of daily management, we found professional property Management Companythrough open recruitment to implement market operation and enterprise-style management on the west garden around the city, the test section of the moat and the cleaning of the city wall. We conducted mandatory administration of park maintenance, cleaning, security and etiquette service,which received favorable feedback.The west garden around the city, the test section of the moat have become a new highlight of our urban construction while cleaningthe city wall all day long has substantially enhanced the environment in the scenic spot and received praise from tourists both home and abroad.