Xi'an

Xi’an is one of the “Four Great Ancient Capitals of China,” with more than 3,000 years of history. Today the city is the capital of Shaanxi province and has a population of around 4.5 million inhabitants. Modern Xi’an is a concrete sprawl that has become the center of the Chinese high-tech and aerospace industries; however, the city is also dotted with historic buildings of great beauty and significance, such as the seventh-century Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The famous Terracotta Army is a 20-mile drive (50 minutes) away and was buried to accompany the first emperor of China into the afterlife. Qin Shi Huang reigned from 221 to 210 B.C., and his 11 years of brutal rule gave the Chinese the ineradicable idea of themselves as a unified people. His dynasty, the Qin dynasty (pronounced “chin”), is also the origin of the English word “China.”