Landmark
Terracotta Army
Over 8,000 life-size terracotta soldiers, horses, and chariots guarding Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum. Discovered in 1974, it's called the "Eighth Wonder of the World".
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
¥120
Xi'an's recorded history begins in the 11th century BC, when the Western Zhou established its capital here under the name Haojing. The city's most famous chapter came in 221 BC, when Qin Shi Huang unified China and made Xianyang—just north of modern Xi'an—his capital. The Terracotta Army was created during this period to guard the emperor's mausoleum.
During the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), the city—then called Chang'an—became the eastern starting point of the Silk Road. Merchants, monks, and diplomats traveled between Chang'an and Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean, making the city a cosmopolitan center of trade and cultural exchange.
The Tang dynasty (618–907) marked Chang'an's golden age. With a population exceeding one million, it was the largest city in the world and a beacon of Buddhism, poetry, and international culture. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built in 652 to house scriptures brought from India by the monk Xuanzang.
After the Tang, the capital moved east, but Xi'an remained an important regional center. The Ming dynasty rebuilt the city wall in the 14th century, creating the structure visitors see today. In 1936, the Xi'an Incident—a forced alliance between Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists to resist Japan—shaped modern Chinese history. Since the 1980s, the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors and the growth of tourism have returned Xi'an to global prominence.