Academy Gate and Cultural Street Photo Tour

The Shuyuan, or Academy of Classical Learning Gate was named for the Guanzhong College that used to be located there. The Guanzhong College was the most famous college in China during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Today, the ancient Academy Gate stands at the entrance to a cultural street. The cultural street was created in the early 1990's. The buildings lining the street are built in the style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They are not cheap imitations of ancient buildings, but built with the same quality and attention to detail that the originals had. The buildings are covered with hand carved bricks, carved wooden doors and tiled roofs. Visiting this street really feels like stepping back into time. It gives visitors a taste of what an ancient commercial street was like in ancient China. The shops do not offer mass produced tourist souvenirs, but real works of art. There are art shops which hand craft their own traditional Chinese paint brushes, jade shops selling exquisitely carved jades, fan shops selling hand painted silk and folding fans, music shops selling traditional Chinese musical instruments, shops selling Xun which is the Chinese version of the ocarina and is unique to Xian, and so much more. The items in these shops are very beautiful and offer visitors a chance to take home a real Chinese work of art.

The ancient Academy Gate

The shops along the cultural street are beautiful in their own right

An artist demonstrating his skill with a Chinese paintbrush

Hand painted water scoops can only be found in Xian

A shop selling their own hand made paint brushes

A shop selling traditional Chinese paper cuts

An ancient Sui Dynasty pagoda located outside the Academy Gate

The Academy Gate draws visitors into China's past

The shops are filled with works of art

A statue of a Ming Dynasty Scholar who founded the academy

The architecture is simply beautiful on the cultural street

A guardian lion outside the Confucian Temple at the end of the culture street

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Continue to enjoy Xian Big Wild Goose Pagoda photo tour and Drum and Bell Towers photo tour