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The Capital of Chang'an and the famous
three palaces in the Tang Dynasty
 Chang'an,
now called Xi'an, was the capital city of China during the Tang
Dynasty. The city structure was actually a renovation and expansion
of the Sui capital Daxing. The expansion project let by Yan Lide,
a most famous architect of the time, made Chang'an one of the most
magnificent and most beautiful metropolis of the world. The new
city was a rectangle facing south with a perimeter of 36.7 kilometres
and a total area of 84 square kilometres. With the Chengtian Gate
and Zhuque Gate as the central axis, the city was divided into eastern
and western parts. The Palace City, where the emperor lived and
worked, was north of the capital while the Imperial City, where
the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Imperial altar and various governmental
departments were located, lay directly south of the Palace City.
The rest of the capital was used as commercial and residential areas.
 The
east and west markets were the capital's two busy commercial centres,
located respectively southeast and southwest of the Imperial City,
each taking an area as large as two residential blocks.
The population of Chang'an was more than a million.
The capital was put under strict administrative, military and police
controls and kept in good order. Various governmental offices took
charge of public order, business, markets, weights and measures,
religious affairs, water supply and drainage, and other public services.
Curfew was imposed on the whole city. All gates of the city wall
and compounds were to opened and closed at a scheduled time. The
streets were all neat and tidy, lined with scholar trees, willows
and elms. Within the enclosed blocks (compounds) were gardens of
bamboos, trees and flowers. More attractive scenic places outside
the city, included the Qujiang Pool and the Huaqing Palace, which
were remarkable works of architecture combined with natural scenery,
and were masterpieces glittering in the history of Chinese gardens.
Chang'an also had three major palaces: the
Taiji Palace, the Daming Palace and the Xingqing Place.
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