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At its height, the city may have been home to as many as one million people<ref>Roughly half of whom would have lived within the city walls proper.</ref>. Its earthen, brick-covered city walls, five meters high, formed a rectangle roughly 8.4 km from north to south, and 9.5 km from east to west. Within the walls, the city was divided into one hundred districts, separated from one another by high walls and gates which were sealed overnight, in observance with a curfew imposed upon the residents. This organizational pattern allowed the government to much more easily maintain registers of the number of families living in each district, and to tax them accordingly. Drum towers spaced throughout the city announced the hours, and soldiers on horseback patrolled the streets, especially at night, to enforce the curfew.

At its height, the city may have been home to as many as one million people<ref>Roughly half of whom would have lived within the city walls proper.</ref>. Its earthen, brick-covered city walls, five meters high, formed a rectangle roughly 8.4 km from north to south, and 9.5 km from east to west. Within the walls, the city was divided into one hundred districts, separated from one another by high walls and gates which were sealed overnight, in observance with a curfew imposed upon the residents. This organizational pattern allowed the government to much more easily maintain registers of the number of families living in each district, and to tax them accordingly. Drum towers spaced throughout the city announced the hours, and soldiers on horseback patrolled the streets, especially at night, to enforce the curfew.

In earlier periods, the ideal Chinese capital was said to have had the Imperial palace at the center, facing south towards the city's chief temple, and with its back to the main marketplace, to the north, thus symbolizing the disdain for commerce held in Courtly elite culture and attitudes. The Sui and Tang Dynasties, however, were strongly influenced by Turkic and other Northern and Central Asian cultures, and organized their capital of Chang'an in a somewhat different fashion. The Imperial City, including the chief administrative districts, was at the east-west center of the northern wall, facing south, with the northern city wall forming the rear of the Imperial City. Two marketplaces were located in the centers, respectively, of the eastern and western flanks of the city. This basic model, with the Imperial City and markets located in this way within a near-perfect street grid, and a central boulevard running south from the southern gate of the Imperial City, dividing the city in half, east and west, served as the model for many later Chinese and Japanese capitals. One key difference, however, is that in these later capitals, the Imperial Palace was located within the Imperial City, at the center of the city's east-west axis, up against the northern wall, facing south. At Chang'an, by contrast, the Palace was located just outside the rectangle of the city walls, to the northeast, with the northern wall of the city forming the southern wall (and gates) of the palace complex.

In earlier periods, the ideal Chinese capital was said to have had the Imperial palace at the center, facing south towards the city's chief temple, and with its back to the main marketplace, to the north, thus symbolizing the disdain for commerce held in Courtly elite culture and attitudes. The Sui and Tang Dynasties, however, were strongly influenced by Turkic and other Northern and Central Asian cultures, and organized their capital of Chang'an in a somewhat different fashion. The Imperial City, including the chief administrative districts, was at the east-west center of the northern wall, facing south, with the northern city wall forming the rear of the Imperial City. Two one-kilometer-square marketplaces were located in the centers, respectively, of the eastern and western flanks of the city. This basic model, with the Imperial City and markets located in this way within a near-perfect street grid, and a central boulevard running south from the southern gate of the Imperial City, dividing the city in half, east and west, served as the model for many later Chinese and Japanese capitals. One key difference, however, is that in these later capitals, the Imperial Palace was located within the Imperial City, at the center of the city's east-west axis, up against the northern wall, facing south. At Chang'an, by contrast, the Palace was located just outside the rectangle of the city walls, to the northeast, with the northern wall of the city forming the southern wall (and gates) of the palace complex.

Nearly one hundred Buddhist temples and numerous Taoist temples and shrines were scattered throughout the city, while a number of Syrian Nestorian churches, Persian Zoroastrian and Manichean temples, and Muslim mosques, were clustered in the foreign quarters around the Western Market. Some scholars estimate that as many as one-third of the city's inhabitants were of a non-Chinese ethnic background.

Nearly one hundred Buddhist temples and numerous Taoist temples and shrines were scattered throughout the city, while a number of Syrian Nestorian churches, Persian Zoroastrian and Manichean temples, and Muslim mosques, were clustered in the foreign quarters around the Western Market. Some scholars estimate that as many as one-third of the city's inhabitants were of a non-Chinese ethnic background. While the Western Market was the center for imported foreign goods, the Eastern Market featured domestic or local goods, including salt, wood, tea, silk, grain, horses, slaves, wine, and precious materials such as jade and jewels. The Eastern Market was also home to many of the city's houses of prostitution.

The majority of the city's buildings were built in wood on earthen foundations, and none survive, with the exceptions of the brick Little Goose and Big Goose Pagodas (the Tang Dynasty earthen city walls are likewise no longer extant). Tang Dynasty Imperial architectural styles survive, however, in many of the oldest and most famous buildings in the Japanese city of Nara.

The majority of the city's buildings were built in wood on earthen foundations, and none survive, with the exceptions of the brick Little Goose and Big Goose Pagodas (the Tang Dynasty earthen city walls are likewise no longer extant). Tang Dynasty Imperial architectural styles survive, however, in many of the oldest and most famous buildings in the Japanese city of Nara.

==References==

==References==

*Valerie Hansen, ''The Open Empire'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 203-205.

*Valerie Hansen, ''The Open Empire'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 203-205, 209.

[[Category:Cities and Towns]]

[[Category:Cities and Towns]]