Fortifications of Xi'an
The city wall of Xi'an (Chinese西安 城墙, Pinyin Xī'ān Chengqiang ) is the largest and most complete city wall today in the People's Republic of China. Thanks to extensive renovations since the 1980s, the city wall is now accessible to the entire length and forms a rectangular ring around the old city Xi'an (formerly Chang'an ).
Description
The wall encloses an area of about 12 km ². The walls to the north and south is about 3.5 kilometers long, the eastern and western portion of about 2.5 kilometers. The walls are structurally a walled embankment, 12 feet high, on the ground 15 to 18 meters, the crown 12 to 14 meters wide. On the outer side of the wall there are a total of 5894 Peaks. The moat outside the wall is still preserved in some places and filled with water.
The city wall has four large gates to each side of: The Anyuan Gate (安 远 门) in the north, the Changle Gate (长乐 门) in the east, the Yongning Gate (永宁 门) in the south, as well as the Anding Gate (安定门) in the west. One of the original goals are 14 more added to improve the traffic situation in the city center. In addition to the 98 towers along the wall, three of the four corner towers have survived. Previously was reached by drawbridges at these gates in the morning the gates were opened by a signal of the bell tower, in the evening the drawbridges were raised by a signal from the drum tower.
History
Although started in the second year of the Sui Dynasty ( 582 ) with the construction of a city wall in Chang'an, the present form, however, was not built until the beginning of the Ming Dynasty ( 1374-1378 ) when the city was the residence city for the was appointed son of Emperor Hongwu. In the Tang Dynasty Chang'an again served as the capital of the Chinese Empire, and so led the city walls surrounding the Imperial Palace, which lay in the south-west corner of the present city wall, along. In the Ming Dynasty, the walls and gates was repeatedly improved and strengthened, under Emperor Qianlong came in 1781, a 20 m wide and up to 7 meter deep moat added.
At the start of Republic - time, some parts of the wall, including many of the demolished towers or disrepair. During World War II parts of the attachment served as protection against Japanese air attacks. After the founding of the People's Republic of the wall was after 1949 interrupted at several points to improve with new roads, the traffic situation.
In 1961, the wall was included as one of the first objects in the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. In 1983, a park along the wall was built and extensive work on the restoration of the wall performed, so that as of 2005 the entire wall can be committed again. Many tourists borrow from the 13.74 km long round bikes to road around the old one.