Xianyang
— — the capital the first empire built first.
Not only on a wall.
“On the north bank of the Wei River in central Shaanxi, joined to Xi'an by a continuous run of suburbs. Xianyang was the capital of the Qin dynasty under the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the third century BC. The modern city carries the airport that serves the whole region. From the studio.
Xianyang, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Xianyang is a prefecture-level city in Shaanxi Province in central China, on the north bank of the Wei River about 25 kilometres northwest of Xi'an. The two cities now share a continuous urban footprint, and the international airport that serves both — Xi'an Xianyang International — sits within the Xianyang municipal area. The prefecture covers about 10,200 square kilometres and the 2020 census recorded a population near 4.5 million. The Wei River valley here is the cradle of several early Chinese dynasties, with farmland in the loess belt that has been worked for more than three thousand years.
Xianyang served as the capital of the Qin dynasty from 350 BC under Duke Xiao, and remained the seat of the first unified Chinese empire under Qin Shi Huang, who proclaimed himself First Emperor in 221 BC. The Epang Palace complex, begun on the south bank of the Wei in 212 BC, was one of the largest building projects of the ancient world; it was burned during the fall of the dynasty in 206 BC. The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and the Terracotta Army sit about 35 kilometres east, within the Xi'an metropolitan area.
Most visitors reach Xianyang through the airport, which handles long-haul service for the whole Guanzhong plain. The Xianyang Museum on Zhongshan Street holds the largest single collection of Western Han funerary terracotta figures in China, recovered from the imperial tombs that line the loess plateau north of the river. The Maoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han, about 40 kilometres west of the city, is the tallest of the Han tombs and the centre of a small archaeological park. Summers on the plain are hot; spring and autumn are the easier seasons.