A preservation project will be completed by 2020 in Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province. This project aims to better preserve and restore the layout of ancient Xi'an City, which was known as Chang'an in ancient times.
With the preservation project, local government of Xi'an wants to restore the urban layout to what it was 2,000 years ago. Besides, a special relic park will be built at the site of the ancient city of Chang'an, displaying remnants of the 2,000-year-old city.
Chang'an means "perpetual peace" in classical Chinese. It was an ancient capital city for more than ten dynasties. During the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-AD24), Chang'an was the political center, economical center, and cultural center of China. International exchanges took place quite frequent in Chang’an. Today it is known as Xi'an.
An important respect of the project will be remaining the Weiyang Palace, where many well-known historical events took place. For instance, Zhang Qian, a famous diplomat of the Western Han Dynasty, set out from Weiyang Palace to open up the Silk Road.
The construction work started last year, this massive project is expected to greatly boost Xi'an tourism from this year.