Amongst the best things to do in Xian to gain insights into the city’s rich heritage is to visit the Forest of Stele Museum that showcases ancient stone carvings.
Begin at Hall One
After you arrive at the Forest of Stele Museum, just a 15-minute walk from Grand Park Xian, you can explore the first hall; you will find steles with the carvings of twelve Chinese classics including the Book of Songs and the Analects of Confucius. The engravings are more than 2,000 years old and are truly remarkable.
Hall Two & Three
At the second hall, of this site that’s within easy reach of hotels in Xi An, are steles with intricate calligraphy dating to the Tang Dynasty. More of this exquisite work can be seen in the third hall which features different calligraphy varieties such as official script, cursive hand and seal characters.
Hall Four & Five
Continuing to the fourth hall you can view some noteworthy stone sculptures from both the Han and Tang dynasties. At the fifth hall, you can look forward to seeing historical records from what is known as the country’s last imperial age (Song to Qing dynasties) that have been painstakingly engraved on the steles.
Hall Six & Seven
For those visiting the sixth hall, many well-known ancient poems and verses from the Qing, Ming and Yuan dynasties can be observed such as Zhao Mengfu’s “A Visit to Mount Tianguan”. Moving on to the seventh hall, you can look at exhibits that include a 17th-century copy of “The Secret Court Copybook of Chunhua”.
