Largely intact and imp
osing enough to act as a physical barrier between the city centre and the suburbs, Xi’an’s walls were originally built of rammed earth in 1370 on the foundation of the walls of the Tang-dynasty imperial, though they took their modern form in 1568, when they were faced with brick. Recently restored, the walls are the most distinctive feature of the modern city, forming a twelve-meter-high rectangle whose perimeter is 12kin in length. Some 18m wide at the base, they’re capped with crenellations, a watchtower at each corner and a fortress-like gate in the centre of each side. Originally the city would have been further defended with a moat and drawbridges, but today the area around the walls is a thin strip of parkland, created after a major restoration in 1983. Few roads which cross the walls, and traffic often has to circle around the outside for some distance before it can gain entry.
You can climb the walls (daily: summer 7am-10.30pm; rest of year 8am-6pm; RMB10) from the inside at steps 200m east of the South Gate and at the West Gate. Unrestored sections, mostly in the north and west, mean you can’t walk all the way around; you can get farthest if you ascend at the West Gate and walk south, descending when you come to the road, and then climbing back up at the south entrance. Locals sometimes use the wall as a nifty shortcut if traffic is bad, though you’ll have to pay the fee to do so.
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