Famen Temple-------Ancestor of Pagoda Temples in Guanzhong Area

Famen Temple is located in Famen town, Fufeng County, 120 kilometers west of Xi'an City, Shaanxi province. It was widely regarded as the "ancestor of pagoda temples in Guanzhong area".

One theory, supported by unearthed eaves-tiles and carved bricks of Han Dynasty, is that the temple was built during the Northern Zhou Dynasty, by Emperor Huan and also by Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The literature record indicates that during Northern Wei Dynasty, Famen Temple already existed on a quite large scale. However, Buddhism was greatly suppressed in Emperor Wu's years of Northern Zhou Dynasty, and Famen Temple was almost completely destroyed. After establishment of Sui Dynasty, Buddhism was venerated, and Famen Temple was rebuilt, although it couldn't be recovered to its heyday in Northern Wei Dynasty. Its name was changed to Cheng Shi Dao Chang, and soon it merged with nearby Baochang Temple, and became a temple-owned farm.

In May 2009 the Shaanxi government finished constructing the first phase of a much larger complex in addition to the Famen Temple. With an area of 150 areas the new "Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Area" added 150 acres (0.61 km2) to the temple complex. The most obvious feature of the new complex is the 148m Namaste Dagoba and vault.

Famen Temple has many relics, such as Buddha's relics and Gold & Silver Relics.

Buddha's relics

From 5–12 May 1987, after the opening of an underground palace, four relics claimed to be directly related to Buddha were found. Two of these were made of white jade. The third relic was from a famous monk. These three are called "duplicate relics". They were placed together with a "true relic" in order to protect them. The true relic is yellow-colored, with bone-like secretory granules. It was declared by experts to be a finger bone of the Sakyamuni Buddha. Thereafter, Famen Temple became a Buddhist place of pilgrimage due to the discovery of what is claimed as a true relic of Buddha.

Gold & Silver Relics

The underground “Palace” is now a museum, and contains some other relics. One of the best preserved is a gilt silver tea set, said to be one of the earliest royal tea sets ever discovered. It includes a tea caddy woven out of metallic yarn, a gilt silver tortoise-shaped tea box, a tea roller-grinder, and a silver stove for brewing the tea. As a part of the set, a kind of container for mixing tea, called a Tiao Da Zi, was used for tea mixing and drinking, since in ancient China the tea drinking ceremony was treated to some extent just like a meal.

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The Pub Street—Defu Lane

Bright lights, pubs, cafes, charming young ladies...the old impassioned lane possesses great attractions. To seek love, to make new friends, to relax themselves…People flood in the Defu Lane when nights fall on.

As the most outstanding bar street in Xian, Defu Lane (Chinese: 德福巷) is best place to taste Xian nightlife. The tourism-oriented Defu Lane is classically elegance. The majestic three-way stone archway, the imitated old houses which could date back to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the pavement made of large bluestone pieces, are the great ingredients for a beautiful scene of the street.

The Defu Lane was built in the nineties of the twenty century, which is a pseudo--classic style lane. Because enshrines plenty of cultural deposits, this lane draws many pubs and cafes to settle down their location. The Chinese style, the American style, or whatever can be found here. the pubs: Old Henry, Defu Lou, Contact, Back Corner, Corsair, Old Gun, Philander, the Same Place, Times, Old Captain, Tangren, Blue Moon, Jusco etc. the cafes: Blue Hill, Old Tree and Zhenwei(True Flavor ) and so forth. What creative and imaginative names they are! Every night, the white-collar, officials, businessmen, students, foreigners, and workers gather here to enjoy the classical music, pop music, rock music, and their beer and coffee.

Just like Shanghai's Xintiandi and Beijing's Sanlitun, Defu Lane in Xi'an has been a sign of vogue. Bars, teahouses and coffee shops in the 200-meter-length street cater the need of upper and middle classes customers, and the names of these bars & cafes indicate the westernization of local lifestyle. The bars are all more or less the same, so you can take your pick of any of them. Generally, the bars are nice enough, but they're unlikely to ever be crowded or particularly exciting. It is the center of Xi'an's nightlife, where you can relax yourself with locals and other travelers from all parts of the globe..

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Xi'an Bell Tower--------a Symbol of the City Xi'an

The Bell Tower of Xi'an (Chinese: 西安钟楼), built in 1384 during the early Ming Dynasty, is a symbol of the city of Xi'an and one of the grandest of its kind in China. The Bell Tower also contains several large bronze-cast bells from the Tang Dynasty. The tower base is square and it covers an area of 1,377 square meters.

There are several legends regarding the Bell Tower, one of them tells:

In Ming Dynasty, several earthquakes struck Guanzhong area, thousands were dead and injured. Then a legend appeared: There was a great river flowing across the center of Xi'an City. A dragon in the river was always active and caused trouble, so an earthquake occurred. An official of Xi'an government believed these words, so he ordered the blacksmiths of the whole city to make a several thousand feet of long iron chain in order to lock the dragon and sink it to river. He then ordered 5,000 craftsmen to repair the Bell Tower day and night in order to use the tower to restrain the dragon. He believed this would suppress the dragon firmly under the river and so it would no longer be active and cause trouble again. After establishing the Bell Tower, earthquakes never occurred in Xi'an again.

According to another legend:

The forefather of Ming Dynasty named Zhu Yuanzhang was born poor and his parents passed away early. He depended on tending sheep for others when he was very little. When he grew up, he left home and became a monk. When he became the emperor, he was afraid that the real emperor ("dragon son of heaven"-means king sent from heaven, a dragon is the symbol of the emperor) in the country somewhere will fight for the throne with him. He then ordered to build the bell towers to suppress the "dragon power". Xi'an was the emperor city in ancient times and it was the place of emperor's throne and the "dragon power" was very strong of course. Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid, so the Bell Tower in Xi'an was built not only quickly, but also very tall.

The tower is a brick and timber structure and close to 40 meters high. It is used to tell people the time as same function as the Drum Tower, bell-ring means morning is coming and drumbeat means the night is falling in the ancient time. Located on the very center of Xi’an old city and near the Drum Tower, it became one of the landmarks of Xi’an. Meanwhile, many art exhibitions often held here all year around.

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