See also: Xi' year (homonymy), Chang' year (homonymy)

Xi' year (, literal translation: “Western peace”) is the capital of the province Shaanxi in China. It has the statute of under-provincial city. It was called Chang' year (長安 pinyin: Chángān, literal translation: “perpetual peace”) during the dynasty of the Han and the Tang. Current Chang' year is today with a few kilometers in the south of Xi' year.

Pronunciation : “Xi' year” decides in two syllables, roughly like “hsi-year”.

Geography and climate

Xi' year has as coordinates. It rises with 412 meters above the sea level. The city itself covers 861 km ².

The climate is of moderate type. The average temperatures for the town of Xi' year go from approximately +1°C for the coldest month to +28°C for the hottest month, with an annual average of +14°C, and the Pluviométrie is there of 574  Misters.

The area is thus relatively dry and the lack of water was felt there. Since 2001 however, a channel of 86 kilometers annually brings 428 million m to him ³ of water coming from the Huang He or Yellow River, is 13,57 m ³ a second .

Demography

The population resident of the prefecture was estimated at: 7160000 inhabitants in 2004, and that of the town of Xi' year with: 4235170 inhabitants in 2007.

One speaks the dialect there about Xi' year of the Mandarin Zhongyuan.

History

Xi' year is the end Is Silk route considered as “having been opened” by the Chinese general Zhang Qian in IIe century before our era. It was one of the Four Large Old Capitals because it was the capital of the Dynastie Qin (221-210 av. J. - C.), of the Han (202 av. J. - C. - 220) and of the Tang (618-907). In 763, the riders of Trisong Detsen (740 - 797), king of the Tibet, invade Xi' year. The Chinese emperor Daizong of the Dynastie Tang being itself flees, the Tibetans nommérent a new emperor.

In Xi' year is a stone stele who proves the presence of Christians nestoriens in China as of the 7th century, probably come from Perse by the Silk route.
This city has a rather important Moslem community whose presence goes back to the Arab or Persian tradesmen come by the Silk route with the Middle Ages. It has astonishing a mosque of Chinese style very old.

The famous monk Xuanzang translated there 645 with his death into 664 the crowned texts Buddhist which it had reported of its voyage in India, begun in 629.

The city has more than 3000 years of history and it still has its very visible enclosure strengthened by photograph satellite.
It is the place where the Accord of Xi' year in 1936 was held. This agreement set up a truce between the Chinese Communist party and the Kuomintang, therefore the two camps could be devoted to the war against the Japan.

Tourism

In the surroundings, the most extraordinary site to visit is the Mausolée of the emperor Qin, famous for its army of Terra cotta made up of: 6000 warriors and horses life size; old woman of: 2000 years, it was discovered only in 1974 by peasants whereas they built a well. On the other hand, its tomb, located at approximately 1,5  km in the west, and covered with a tumulus, was not excavated yet by the archeologists, and is not opened to the visitors. The mausoleums of the emperors of the Western Han and the Tang are also in the surroundings, but little of them are excavated until our days for lack of techniques of protection of these immense buried cultural richnesses. The sites nevertheless became of tourist curiosities such as the mausoleum of Wu Zetian and those of Jingdi and Wudi of the Dynastie Han.

Twinning

Xi' year is twinned with

Photo gallery

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