明德门公园

This guide to Mingde Gate Park in Xi'an centers on the grandest of Tang Chang'an's twelve city gates, the only one built with five doorways, wide enough for an emperor's procession. It follows the warlord Zhu Wen's decision in the year nine hundred four to move the capital to Luoyang, and the order he gave the very carpenters and roofers who had built and kept Chang'an's streets. You'll hear about Emperor Zhaozong marched east alongside them. Stand on the excavated foundations and picture the ambassadors, pilgrims and armies who once crossed this threshold.