Guanzhong Ancient Academy Travel Guide

The Guanzhong Ancient Academy (Guanzhong Shuyuan) is one of the "Four Ancient Academies" well preserved in China.

This academy is bearing Ming and Qing Dynasties architectural features. There are 6 lecture rooms named "Yunzhitang", 4 south rooms, 6 east wing-rooms and 6 west wing-rooms. Behind the lecture rooms, there is a rock garden; while in front of the lecture rooms, there are Chinese acre side pond, pavilion and bridge. Besides, the brush-written Lishu (Chinese script) written by ancient scholars confirm the history of the ancient academy.

The Guanzhong Academy was once Shannxi province's highest academy during the Ming and Qing dynasty. In 1906, the Guanzhong Academy became the Shannxi Province Campus, the highest school among the northwest 5 provinces. At present it is the Provincial Normal School. You can also visit the Academy Gate (Shuyuanmen) cultural street.

From the South Gate in west to the Baishulin Street in east, the Academy Gate cultural street is the most well conserved ancient street in Xian city which is more than 570 meters long, nearby the Forest of Steles Museum. At the entrance of the Shuyuanmen Street, you can see a decorative archway titled "the Academy Gate". The street lies with bluestone and the construction along the street is in the style of antiquity. Here shop facades are neither as delicate as the ones in the south of the Yangtze River, nor as splendid as the ones in Beijing Dashalan, but plain and unsophisticated for they have little unnecessary decoration. Besides, the signboards, the couplets hung in front and the depth slender ways, demonstrate one kind of erudite Confucian scholar atmosphere. The shops sell each kind of tourist souvenirs, handicrafts and so on. However  the one manifest the characteristic of the Shuyuanmen street most are the writing-set, calligraphy scroll, traditional Chinese painting reel, rubbing, Lantian Jade, and the ancient musical instrument "batardeau". What needs to us point out is that there are true works written or painted by folk amateurs and famous experts, but there are shams as well.