Xi'an pavilion houses glories of the past

Housing more than 2 million records, including books and newspapers, as well as audio and video tapes, the Xi'an branch has two sculptures of mythical beasts－Tianlu and Qilin－sitting in its front hall. They guard a 90-meter-long and 20-meter-high wall that holds about 50,000 books. It also holds 160 terabytes of digital resources. A single terabyte can hold the text of roughly 1 million books.

Tianlu and Qilin are legendary hybrid creatures considered to bring good luck and fortune. Since ancient times, China's rulers have attached great importance to the storage of books and records in libraries. The Han Dynasty imperial family kept a sizable library known as the Tianlu Ge in Chang'an (now Xi'an) and, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), classical academies throughout the country housed collections of books for scholarly use. "Reflecting the cultural heritage in Shaanxi, we organized two exhibitions to mark the opening of the Xi'an branch of the National Archives of Publications and Culture," Hao Huijie, director of the provincial publicity department says. Hao adds that one is focused on Chinese cultural classics, covering more than 2,000 square meters and featuring 1,743 items, and the other covers 772 sq m and exhibits about 600 items, mainly publications, reflecting the cultural heritage along the Silk Road. Xi'an became the starting point of the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty, making it a hub of international communication between China and the outside world.

The Silk Road exhibition has five sections, categorized by time, showing how the ancient trade route has evolved and is linked to various cultures. A key crossroads between China and the rest of the world, Xi'an is the eastern starting point of the route.

Wenji Ge will combine the cultural characteristics of western China and fully display the civilization of the Silk Road, according to Hao.

As well as the two exhibitions, there is a library and a virtual reality experience area open to the public. In the reading area, people with impaired vision can access computers with assistive technology. Seminars and lectures on cultural studies and research will also be held there.