The Silk Road's eastern terminus — Terracotta Warriors, Tang dynasty walls and Muslim Quarter lamb skewers
Xi'an (西安) is the ancient capital of China and the starting point of the Silk Road — a city that served as China's capital for 13 dynasties over more than 1,100 years, including the Han and Tang, and whose walled centre preserves the most complete and best-maintained Ming dynasty city walls in China. The Terracotta Army, discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well and still being excavated, is one of the world's most extraordinary archaeological sites — 8,000+ life-size warriors, horses, and chariots buried with Qin Shi Huang (China's first emperor) in 210 BC. The Muslim Quarter (Huimin Jie)…
Xi'an (then called Chang'an, 'Eternal Peace') was the capital of the unified Qin Empire (221–206 BC), Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), and Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) — the Tang Dynasty period when Chang'an had a population of over one million and was the world's most cosmopolitan city, with Persian, Arab, Jewish, Nestorian Christian, and Zoroastrian communities alongside the Buddhist monasteries brought from India. The Silk Road trade routes radiating from the city created the economic and cultural exchange that shaped both Chinese and Western civilisations for over a millennium. The 14th-century…