The Daming Palace National Heritage Park will open on October 1, 2010. The Park, which centers around the Daming Palace heritage site, is going to be the “Central Park” of Xi’an. It is not only a place of leisure, but an example of an urban renewal project.

The original Daming Palace was built in the 8th year (634 AD) of the Zhengguan reign. As the largest palace in Chang’an, the capital city of the Tang Dynasty, it covered an area of 3.3 square kilometers, 3.5 times large of the Forbidden City in Beijing. There were 11 grand gates along the 7,628 meters bounding wall. Starting from the reign of Emperor Gao, Tang dynasty emperors have lived and dealt with state affairs in the Daming Palace for over 200 years.

The Daming Palace Heritage Park is built on the site of the original palace to reproduce the glory of the Tang Dynasty while incorporating modern elements. The Park is divided into three parts: the front garden, the palace, and the back garden. The Park is so big that it takes three hours to tour around on an electronic bus. One day from dawn to dusk is not enough if you want to explore the Park on foot.

The primary intention of building the Park is to protect the site of the original Daming Palace. It turns out that this project also improves the living environment of local residents. The project started in May 2008 when the site was a densely populated area. During the past two years, 3.5 million square kilometers of old buildings were pulled down. 25,000 households, that is over 100,000 people, moved into their new apartments. The fund to pull down old buildings and relocate local residents amounted to 8.3 billion yuan. The construction of Daming Palace Heritage Park managed to protect historical relics and further the urban renewal of Xi’an city.

By Xie Fang and Liu Jingyuan