Xi'an is a world famous historical culture city and is one of the cities with the most profound tourist resource throughout the country. It enjoys exceptional advantages in developing tourist industry. Qinshihuang's Warriors and Horses Figurine Pit is known as "the world 8th miracle". Ming's ancient city wall is the ancient castle most complete in preservation and most broad in scale so far in the world. The Steles Forest Museum is the largest stone-book storehouse in our country. And the Banpo Ruins Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, the Tang Great Wild Goose Tower, the Small Wild Goose Tower, Ming Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Huajue Temple Mosque inside the urban area of Xi'an, the Gong Wang Mountains Lantian Ape Ruins, Water-land Temple, Wuzhen Temple, Tower Watch Post, etc. inside Xi'an tourist area, and Huang Di Tomb, Han Mao Tomb, Tang Qian Tomb, Fa Men Temple etc. in Xi'an's surrounding areas are all well-known scenic spots at home and abroad. Xi'an's boasts its natural scenic resources with high mountains, straight peaks, precipitous cliffs, and unique beauty. There are natural scenic spots of West Mountain Huashan, Zhongnan Mountain, Taibai Mountain, Wangshun Mountain, Lishan Huaqing Pond, Tower Watch Post, and Lantian Karst Caves, etc. inside and in the neighborhood of the city. Humanity and nature, ancient city and new looks combine together to make up the unique style of the ancient capital of Xi'an. It draws a strong attraction to tourists at home and abroad.
Xi'an takes full advantages of its resources and makes great effort in developing its tourist industry, and have made great achievements:
(Ⅰ) Tourist facilities are being perfected day by day.
There are currently 36 foreign-related tourist hotels (among which, 18 are 3-star and 4-star, 4 are 5-star) in Xi'an, with over 20,000 beds and an annual receiving capability of more than 2,400,000 tourists.
There are outstanding improvements in tourist transportation. Xi'an Xianyang International Airport opens several domestic international lines; Xi'an Railway Station has an average delivering capability of more than 60,000 tourists per day. There are more than 2,800 km roads in Xi'an and 5 backbones of nation-roads running through here. The construction of high-grade expressways of Xi-Lin, Xi-Tong and Xi-Bao Expressways, etc. makes a convenient transportation for Xi'an to east, south, west and north. There are 9 special tourist lines in the city, and there are more than 7,000 tourist rental cars and more than 600 middle and large luxurious cars for receiving overseas tourists.
Local characteristics has gradually come into shape in the production of tourist merchandise, such as replicas of Qin Figurine, Qin Embroidery, handicraft pottery, Hu County peasant Painting, Guanzhong paper-cut and other folk handicrafts. There are a total of 21 foreign-related tourist designated shops and large-scale shopping centers as Min Sheng, Kai Yuan, Tang City and Qiu Lin, etc. They can fairly satisfy the shopping needs of tourists at home and abroad.
There are a total of 27 foreign-related tourist designated restaurants, which supply each kind of delicious dishes, such as the top 8 Chinese Food and Euro-American Western Food, Japanese Food, Korean Roast Food, and Southeastern Flavored Food, etc. They have also explored more than 120 kinds of replicas of Tang Dishes, forming traditional dishes focused on Tang Dishes and modem dishes focused on Shaan Dishes. Snacks and Jiaozi Banquet with local characteristics in particular attracts customers from all over the world.
In order to enrich tourists' entertainment and satisfy their vacationing needs, the City of Xi'an builds a great number of entertainment facilities, such as Tangle Palace, Ancient Capital Grand Theater, Garden Song and Dance Theater, Shaan Song Grand theater, Yisu Grand Theater, Taoyuan Lake Bowling Club, Weiyang Lake Polo Club, Weiyang Lake Amusement Park and New Taohuayuan Leisure Villa, etc. And the City promotes culture and art programs of "Tang Chang'an Music Dance" and "Replica of Tang Music Dance", etc. and they have a lasting show-life and win high praises from audiences at home and abroad.
The Government of Xi'an City started in 1996 to develop and construct the Qujiang River Resort of 155,000 square kilometers, so to further improve Xi'an tourist set facilities.
(Ⅱ) High Performance Receiver Team and High Level Service Quality
By the end of 1997, there have been more than 400 units of various kinds engaged in tourist business in Xi'an area, among which there are 155 foreign-related ones. There are more than 30,000 service personnel directly engaged in tourist reception and up to more than 120,000 indirectly engaged in tourist reception. In every previous speciality skill contest held in national tourist industry and in every service quality poll, Xi'an's tour guides and hotel attendants won top prizes and good comments from tourists at home and abroad for several times. Their tour-guiding level in particular is generally acknowledged as the first class by tourists and colleagues at home and abroad.
Three universities in the city has established Tour Department, training superior talents engaged in tourist administration. In addition, there are more than 10 tour profession training schools, training a great number of students for tourist industry. The establishment of the education training network at 3 levels of superior, intermediate and junior satisfies the needs for Xi'an tourist industry education and training on the whole.
The city's responsible authorities for tour impose the business license system on the tour units throughout the city for them to practice tourism business; and establish a fairly perfect control, complaint, supervision system of tourist service quality.
(Ⅲ) Lasting and Stable Development Tendency
During the 20 years since Reform and Opening up, the tourist industry in Xi'an has speedily developed. In 1997, a total of 485,000 tourists were received, higher than that of the same period of the last year by 6.92%; tour foreign exchange income was 201,000,000 US dollars, higher than the same period of the last year by 9.3%; domestic tourists received are 9,620,000, higher than the same period of the last year by 8.7%. The total tour income is 6,700,000,000 RMB. The tourist industry further stabilized its position as a backbone industry in national economy.
In 1998, Xi'an City received 479,836 overseas tourists and 10,580,000 domestic tourists, and the total tour income was 7,200,000,000 RMB, accounting for 12.6% of Xi'an GNP.

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