Coordinating Protection and Development for Xi'an City Wall

As a "living history", Xi'an City Wall bears the continuation of civilization. In terms of how to protect and enrich the history, for many years, it has been offering vivid practices, serving as the example for inheriting and developing the preservation of cultural relics.

Based on the historical and cultural resources, Xi'an City Wall Management Committee constructs the five-sphere integrated plan of "awe, passion, respect, development and revival", aiming to "inject vitality to cultural relics". By incorporating the significant heritage value and rich cultural connotation of Xi'an City Wall, the Committee has held multiple cultural events to enrich people's life, including co-hosting 2016 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, New Year Lantern Show, International Marathons and Silk Road International Film Festival. During these events, the Committee issued a series of regulations in line with heritage preservation on the scope, scale, form, maximum passenger flow and load capacity of cultural activities.

As the "name card" of this ancient capital, Xi'an City Wall closely follows the trend and constantly broadens its development path, making breakthroughs in the combination of "heritage, culture, and tourism" after deliberation and efforts. With the concept of cultural tourism, it also explores the innovative path of activating and utilizing cultural heritage and derivative development of traditional culture. By this way, the high-quality development of cultural relics is constantly enhanced and the fine traditional Chinese culture is inherited and carried forward.

While developing the integration of culture and tourism, Xi'an City Wall devises a new model through the diversified construction of immersive cultural and tourist activities. Xi'an City Wall Management Committee created the world's only tourist-cultural performance themed with the etiquette culture of Tang Dynasty— Chang'an Impression-Tang Dynasty Grand Welcoming Ceremony. At the same time, various popular cultural and creative designs made their debuts, such as "Team of Tang" including IPs like Tang Xiaofei, Cheng Xiaojiang, Li Xiaobai and Persian, and other 300 products.

Moreover, the Committee has demonstrated the City Wall's historical features and cultural connotations to the world through various forms of cultural communication, such as Xi'an City Wall New Year Lantern Show, Xi'an City Wall International Music Festival, Kite Festival and Night at the Museum. These all allow tourists to get close contact with the millennium historical civilization, thus improving public cultural awareness at multiple levels and from multiple angles. 

As for scene application, the upgradation and renovation have been made to the Battlement Museum at the South Gate of Xi'an City Wall and the Special Museum for Protection and Inheritance in Yuecheng at the South Gate. Hanguangmen Site Museum of Xi'an Tang City Wall has actively held the themed cultural and artistic exhibitions, innovating the utilization mode of ancient buildings by integrating the buildings on the City Wall with traditional art. Defensive forts on the City Wall has become public venues for culture and art, such as Jinhuidui Art Museum, Armor Museum, Fan Yanyan Art Center and City Brick Museum. You can take a walk along the moat and row a boat on the river… The diversified integration of culture and tourism has become people's new priority.

Nowadays, from scenic spots to blocks, from cultural relics to culture itself, Xi'an City Wall has entered a second round of innovation. Besides, it has also shouldered new responsibilities such as the trusteeship of Bell and Drum Towers, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, and Beilin District, and the construction of Shuncheng Lane Historic Districts. Xi'an City Wall, the symbol of Xi'an's history and culture, has become an important representative of humanistic Xi'an and ancient capital Xi'an, a new model of the integration and development of culture and tourism in China, and a characteristic business card of Xi'an going global.