Xi'an

Xi'an, meaning 'Western peace', is the capital of Shaanxi Province. Known as Chang'an in ancient times, it is a city rich in history and served as the national capital during some of China's most important dynasties. Since the 1990s, as part of the economic revival of China's interior, the city of Xi'an has re-emerged as a major cultural, industrial and educational center of the central-northwest region, with facilities for research and development, national security and China's space exploration program.

Geography and climate

Surrounded by mountains and rivers, Xi'an lies on the Guanzhong Plain in central China. At the beginning of Han Dynasty, Prime Minister Zhang Liang advised the emperor Liu Bang to choose Guanzhong as the capital of the Han Dynasty because, 'Thousands of miles of land rich in harvest can be found here, as if this place belongs to the nation of heaven.' 

Xi'an enjoys a temperate climate with hot summers and cold, dry winters. Monthly average temperatures range from freezing in January to 27°C (80°F)  in July.

Tourism

Because of the city’s historical importance and the plethora of ancient monuments and tombs in the vicinity, tourism is a major component of the local economy, and the Xi’an region is one of China's most popular tourist destinations.

The city has many important historical sites, the most famous of which is the Terracotta Warriors at the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor. There are several burial mounds, tombs of the Zhou Dynasty kings located in the city. Xi'an also contains some 800 royal mausoleums and tombs from the Han Dynasty, with some of them yielding hundreds of sculpted clay soldiers, and remains of sacrificial temples from the Han era. The city has numerous Tang Dynasty pagodas and is noted for its history museum and its stele forest, which is housed in an 11th-century Confucian temple containing large stone tablets from various dynasties.

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