Shuyuanmen Ancient Culture Street

Shuyuanmen Ancient Culture Street is located south of the Bell Tower in Xi’an and is famous for being the location of Guanzhong Academy. A decorated archway stands at the entrance to the street with 3 golden Chinese characters “Shu Yuan Men” carved on the top, and a striking couplet is engraved on each site of the archway, reading “The Stele Forest Contains National Treasures” and “The Academy Gestates Big Talents.” The street is paved with blue slab-stones, and along the street stands archaic architectures set in the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1616-1911) styles. At the end of the street stands a stele forest.

In total, Shuyuanmen Ancient Culture Street is 570 meters long and features over 100 stores. The golden storefront trade names hang on the second or third floor of the architectures; the most famous of these are Wencui Pavilion, Zuishu Loft, Juxiang Room, and Bright Moon Palace. All the buildings are decorated in a simple and unsophisticated style, but they still help to create an elegant and auspicious atmosphere. As well, particularly to the delight of shoppers, superb collections of fine items are available on the street, ranging from tourist souvenirs, musical instruments, and handicrafts, to jade. The most typical of these souvenirs are known as “the scholar's four jewels”: a writing brush, ink stick, ink slab, and paper.

As for Guanzhong Academy, it was the supreme school of the Shaanxi Province during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, and it boasts the title of being one of the four famous academies in China. Centered by Yunzhi Lecture Hall, the academy is quite large and consists of 16 rooms in total. There is a square pond and a rockery in the front and the back of the lecture hall respectively, and a pavilion stands in the center of the pond. Today, Guanzhong Academy functions as a part of the more modern Xi’an Normal University. Shuyuanmen Ancient Culture Street’s profound cultural connotations are a direct result of having been highly influenced by the intellectual air of Guanzhong Academy, and many painters and calligraphers from all over the country arrive at the street to demonstrate their talents. The street paintings are of great varieties and include figure paintings, landscape works, and bird and flower paintings. Calligraphic works, on the other hand, compete with each other for beauty and uniqueness. These works include cursive handwritings, running handwritings, seal characters, regular scripts, and official scripts.

Address: south of the Bell Tower in Xi’an
Opening hours: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm every day
Bus routes: 6, 11, 12, 23, 29, 31, 35, 40, 203, 204, 323, 501, 800, 910, and 222