Xi'an - Forest of Stelae

(Local Name: Beilin) In the former Confucius Temple east of the southern town gate of the old town is China's most important collection of stone tablets. This so-called ''Forest of Stelae'' consist of 3200 stone tablets of which 1700 are exhibited. The oldest date back about 2000 years. The main and largest part of the collection is made up of 114 tablets on which the Confucian canon was engraved in the year 837. Particularly well-known is the ''Nestorian Stela'', dating from 781. It documents the existence of a Christian community in the former Tang capital Chang'an.

In the side-halls, monumental stone animals and tomb bas-reliefs from the Han and Tang periods (206 BC-AD 907) as well as Buddhist