1997-19, The City Wall of Xi’an《西安城墙》

Stamp Title: The City Wall of Xi’an
Scott No: 2806, 2807, 2808, 2809
Serial number: 1997-19
Values in set: 4
(4-1), Surrounding Tower, 50 fen, 50*30mm
(4-2), Arrow Tower, 50 fen, 50*30mm
(4-3), Watch Tower, 150 fen, 50*30mm
(4-4), Corner Tower, 150 fen, 50*30mm
Date of issue: October 24,1997
Designers: Guo Xianlu
Size: 50*30mm
Perforation: 12
Sheet composition: 40
Printing process: offset

Xi’an, called Changan in ancient times, is one of the six ancient capitals in China. Twelve dynasties such as Western Zhou, Western Han, Xinmang, Western Jin, Sui and Tang chose this city as their capital, spanning more than 1,000 years.

The existing city wall of Xi’an is 11,906.8 meters in length, 12 meters in height, 12-14 meters in width at the top and 15-18 meter in width at its base. The city wall was built by ramming loess layer by layer, the base layer constituted the blended substance of lime, earth and glutinous rice, and outside the wall lies a city moat. The structure and layout of this entire city wall were designed to ward-off the possible attacks and for defense, and are the existent materials for the study of the city building technology and city defensive wars during the medieval period.

As one of China’s famous building constructions at the late stage of the medieval period, the city wall of Xi’an was included in the list of China’s first batch of cultural relics units under State protection after liberation, and is well preserved ever since. In 1988, the Chinese Government appropriated a huge sum of money to repair and renovate the original city wall, restoring the ancient city wall of Xi’an to its original grandeur and opening it as a ring-city park.

1997年特种邮票《西安城墙》
国家邮政局1997年10月24日发行《西安城墙》特种邮票1套4枚。
（4-1）T 瓮城 50 分 3151.75万枚
（4-2）T 箭搂 50 分 3151.75万枚
（4-3）T 敌台 150 分 2521.75万枚
（4-4）T 角台 150 分 2521.75万枚

志号名称：1997-19T
版别：胶印
整版枚数：40 枚
齿孔度数：12 度
邮票规格：50 × 30毫米
设计者：郭线庐
印制机构：河南省邮电印刷厂
古城西安位于中国西北关中平原中部，曾为中国历史上十二个朝代的国都。现存西安城墙于明代初在唐长安城皇城基础上建成，是中国保存最完好的古代城建筑，也是世界上现存规模最大、最完整的古代军事城堡设施。