8 Amazing Facts about Xi’an City Wall

As the largest and also best-preserved city wall in China, Xi’an City Wall surrounds the city center of about 11.32 square kilometers (4.4 square miles). Along this complete city wall, there are 18 gates and other military constructions such as arrow-shooting towers and barbicans. Such good conditions even make it popular to cycle on Xi’an City Wall and admire the city views integrating the past and the present.

In ancient times, the Xi’an City Wall was a solid boundary and protected people living within. Its complete fortifications are composed of multiple defensive lines: the outermost moat as the first defensive line, followed by the drawbridge which can be raised to cut off the only entrance passage to the city, the arrow-shooting tower for soldiers to attack enemies from multiple directions, the barbican as an enclosure space to trap enemies, and the main towers on the four main gates as military command centers.

In a bird’s eye view, the City Wall is in a shape similar to a rectangular, with the 4,135-meter-long (2.5 miles) northern section, 4195-meter-long (2.6 miles) southern section, 2625-meter-long (1.6 miles) western section, and 2,680-meter-long (1.65 miles) eastern section. To complete a walk on the entire wall, you basically need to spend about 4 hours, and cycling on the wall approximately takes 2 to 3 hours.

As a strong and majestic defensive building, the thickness of the wall is greater than its height, making it difficult to attack through. From a sectional prospective, the wall looks like a trapezoid wider at the bottom with a length from about 15 to 18 meters, and its top is about 12 to 14 meters long (13 to 15 miles), totally enough for soldiers to drill and for chariots to move around.

Gateway Relic of Xi'an City Wall

The Xi’an City Wall we see today was constructed between 1370 and 1378 in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) on the basis of the imperial city wall in Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) Dynasties. The Anshang Gate of the imperial city was chosen as the South Gate of Xi’an City Wall. So strictly speaking, the wall enjoys an even longer history for more than 1,400 years.

Among four corners of Xi’an City Wall, only the southwest one is circular. Back to Ming Dynasty when the emperor ordered to construct the city wall, the previous southwest round corner still existed. To save time and material costs, this corner was retained, and construction was carried out from this site and expanded to the north and east, resulting in the existing shape of city wall with one circular and three square corners.
 

Visitors in Xi'an City Wall Park

You may wonder why glutinous rice juice is used to construct the magnificent city wall. In fact, this ingredient can make mortar more resilient and sticky. Constructers blended the juice, limestone, and sandy soil to make gluey mortar, and applied it in gaps between the wall bricks, so that the City Wall is extremely sturdy, and can even defend against a bomb. Up to now, glutinous rice juice is still a vital material to restore the wall.
 

The top of the city wall slightly slopes inward, and such a design is mainly for good drainage. Even if it rains heavily, rain water flows to gutters on the inner side of the wall and won’t accumulate on the top, or soak the wall. More than 600 years ago, people have realized the importance of waterproofing and drainage, so that the City Wall can stand firm for hundreds of years, even in the face of countless storms and rains.

 Further Reading:
How to Visit Xi'an City Wall