China - Xi'an - Ancient capital of China - Gate through City Walls Lit by Traditional Chinese Red Laterns

    Xi'an (Chinese: 西安; pinyin: Xī'ān) is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. As one of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty. Xi'an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, having held that position under several of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang. Xi'an is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and home to the Terracotta Army

    The fortifications of Xi'an, an ancient capital of China, represent one of the oldest and best preserved Chinese city walls. Construction of the first city wall of Chang'an began in 194 BCE and lasted for four years. That wall measured 25.7 km in length, 12–16 m in thickness at the base. The area within the wall was ca. 36 km². The existing wall was started by the Ming Dynasty in 1370. It encircles a much smaller city of 14 km². The wall measures 13.7 km in circumference, 12 m in height, and 15–18 m in thickness at the base.

    Since the ancient weapons did not have the power to break through a wall and the only way for an enemy to enter the city was by attacking the gate of the city wall. This is why complicated gate structures were built within the wall. In Xian, the city wall includes four gates and they are respectively named as Changle (meaning eternal joy) in the east, Anding (harmony peace) in the west, Yongning (eternal peace) in the south and Anyuan (forever harmony) in the north. The south gate, Yongning, is the most beautifully decorated one. It is very near to the Bell Tower, center of the city. Important greeting ceremonies organized by the Provincial Government are usually held in the south gate square.

    Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II; Lens’s focal length: 17.00 - 40.00 mm; Focal length: 17.00 mm; Aperture: 22; Exposure time: 25.0 s; ISO: 100

    All rights reserved - Copyright © Lucie Debelkova

    All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed, written permission of the photographer.

    Comments and faves

    1. ★

      B4YK1D5, recaptured, Sub-sequence, Elva Trastevere, and 199 other people added this photo to their favorites.

    2. © Lucie Debelkova / www.luciedebelkova.com (18 months ago | reply)

      free counters

    3. © Lucie Debelkova / www.luciedebelkova.com (18 months ago | reply)

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    4. HD Photographie (18 months ago | reply)

      Great perspective Lucie !!!

    5. Lella Leone Photo (18 months ago | reply)

      one trip ..... beautiful

    6. Wilson's Vision (18 months ago | reply)

      Excellent work

    7. Chesky_W (18 months ago | reply)

      This is impressive work! great perspective view.

    8. kingsriram (18 months ago | reply)

      Beautiful.

    9. Fraser.Price (18 months ago | reply)

      Good shot:)

    10. kike.matas (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    11. Darrell Godliman (18 months ago | reply)

      Wonderfully atmospheric shot, I'd so love to go there myself.
      --
      Seen on my Flickr home page. (?)

    12. T-Ace (18 months ago | reply)

      Beautiful perspective!

    13. ktania (18 months ago | reply)

      beautiful!

    14. Le***Refs *PHOTOGRAPHIE* (18 months ago | reply)

      superb perspective and colors!

    15. Tberga| (18 months ago | reply)

      Perfect shot. Light, colours, compo, just everything.

    16. ::: Q ::: (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    17. Mit_S. (18 months ago | reply)

      a stunning work...!

    18. Qais Alamar (18 months ago | reply)

      amazing

    19. ernestkoe (18 months ago | reply)

      I love your work, and I visit this stream regularly. I do however have one gentle criticism. It seems to me that the long descriptions used here tend to come from wikipedia and that's fantastic, but they ought to include the proper attribution. Wikipedia's term of use can be found here:

      wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use

      You can re-use content from Wikimedia projects freely, with the exception of content that is used under "fair use" exemptions, or similar exemptions of copyright law. Please follow the guidelines below:
      Re-use of text:
      Attribution: To re-distribute a text page in any form, provide credit to the authors either by including a) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages you are re-using, b) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy which is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on this website, or c) a list of all authors. (Any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions.) This applies to text developed by the Wikimedia community. Text from external sources may attach additional attribution requirements to the work, which we will strive to indicate clearly to you. For example, a page may have a banner or other notation indicating that some or all of its content was originally published somewhere else. Where such notations are visible in the page itself, they should generally be preserved by re-users.

    20. Mahdi Ahmed (18 months ago | reply)

      Amazing

    21. Laurent Saleh (18 months ago | reply)

      Great perspective and colors

    22. mimmopellicola (18 months ago | reply)

      fantastic

    23. farbspiel (18 months ago | reply)

      Now these are nice leading lines, Lucie! :-) Great composition!

    24. The Patriot 1776 (18 months ago | reply)

      This is WONDERFUL !!!

    25. johnhayes5032 (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    26. Firefalcon (18 months ago | reply)

      Beautiful! I love how you have composed and captured the image. :-)

    27. puppies8691 (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    28. Robert Wilson Photography (18 months ago | reply)

      Great composition Lucie.

    29. Andressa Rafaela (18 months ago | reply)

      a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/83374 492@N00/" title="Photo Sharing"> Nominated
      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    30. babamamafoto.com (18 months ago | reply)

      ********************************************* ************************
      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

      ********************************************* ***********************

    31. Matyas Dubai (18 months ago | reply)

      Wow........

    32. andrea vinante (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    33. Rudy Sempur (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    34. Marvin Bredel (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    35. Yuki1683 (18 months ago | reply)

      Wow, where'd you find these.
      Wonderful perspective.

    36. Besser (18 months ago | reply)

      Really beautiful Lucie. I would like to watch someday photos from southameria and Chile.

    37. murphygb (18 months ago | reply)

      great symmetry

    38. Mukul Banerjee (www.mukulbanerjee.com) (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

      commented with FlickrComment

    39.  David.Keochkerian  (18 months ago | reply)

      nice shot!!!! wow

      like it :-)

    40. blinkingidiot (18 months ago | reply)

      It's certainly a very striking image.

    41. Elva Trastevere (18 months ago | reply)

      Nominated

      I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
      National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?

    42. Fred Wang - Photography (18 months ago | reply)

      great color contrast.

    43. TaiGarual (18 months ago | reply)

      Striking capture! Lovely!

    44. patrickiven (18 months ago | reply)

      great perspective - also just returned from China business trip

    45. transhumante (18 months ago | reply)

      Increíble

    46. thinkerCKD (18 months ago | reply)

      great symmetric shot, red lanterns catch my eye.

    47. _Katarzyna (18 months ago | reply)

      wow, amazing!

    48. Michel-A. (18 months ago | reply)

      Brilliant composition !! love it

    49. LIBRAdos [deleted] (18 months ago | reply)

      Very good shoot.

    50. Luciano Kuprešak (18 months ago | reply)

      ty jo
      tak to je bomba
      krasa

    51. Lee Sie (18 months ago | reply)

      Thanks for bringing us there with your beautiful shot!

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