Capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi, for nine hundred years, Xi’an was the political and cultural centre of China under the name of ‘Chang’an’. As capital of the Han empire (∼ 202 B.C.), it was under the reign of the Tangs that the city of "eternal peace" enjoyed its golden age (first half of the 18th century). The first fully planned town in the history of China, Chang’an is the centre of the Asian world.
Oriental sovereign of the silk routes and a prestigious crossroads where people, products, ideas and religions converged: Byzantines, Turks, Persians, Arabs, Indians, Japanese, Taoists, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Manicheans, Nestorians, businessmen, princes, students or pilgrims returning from Aurangabad… all flocked to this prodigious metropolis of the medieval world which counted more than one million inhabitants before the rebellion of An Lushan in 756. Today, strong from the boom of the textile industry and the rich Weihe Plain, Xi’an has succeeded in becoming a first-rate industrial, technical, academic and scientific centre. Economic development solutions attract hi-tech companies from all over the world to this “small town” of more than 8 million inhabitants. 1200 kilometres to the south-west of Beijing, for some years Xi’an has been uncontestably a prominent agent in the dynamism of modern China and its relations with the West. With the illustrious heritage of its imperial past, a passionate cultural offering and being fully turned towards the future, Xi’an, at the heart of China, is an extraordinary and unique destination for a language course!
Return to introduction...
Language 