City preview · XI’AN

The Terracotta Army once stood beneath a roof

Earthen partitions and corridors beneath the Terracotta Army once supported a timber roof; its collapse crushed many figures. Flames rose from fountains when the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda’s north square opened. An overcrowded Chen Danqing lecture gained a second session that evening, while Xi’an Jiaotong University students trace plane-tree leaves and use software to crown a Leaf King.

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Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum · Editorial illustration, not a historical photo

From a timber pit roof to the campus Leaf King

A pit roof, fire fountains, an extra lecture, and one champion leaf

Four complete stories and their public sources are shown here; the rest of the collection is in the app.

01 · Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum

The Terracotta Army Stands Inside an Earthen Building

Ten partitions form eleven corridors beneath the restored ranks.

Pit 1 was constructed before figures were installed. Ten east-west rammed-earth partitions divided eleven corridors with brick floors and a timber-and-earth roof above. Collapse, fire, and burial broke many figures; upright ranks include years of excavation and restoration. From the public platform, structure and army can be read together.

Source: bmy.com.cn Source: bmy.com.cn Source: whc.unesco.org

02 · Giant Wild Goose Pagoda North Square

The fountain used to shoot real fire

Four jets rose from the water and burned six meters overhead.

When the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda North Square first opened on December 31, 2003, reports counted more than pumps and nozzles. They also described four "fire fountains" rising from the water and burning about 6 meters overhead. Water, fire, lasers, and music ran in one programmed show, giving the square a full-scale nighttime spectacle from opening day. Whether the equipment still follows that setup depends on the current schedule; the fire belongs to the square's opening-era record.

Source: qjxq.xa.gov.cn Source: chinanews.com.cn Source: xa.gov.cn

03 · Xi'an Art Museum

The room filled up, so Chen Danqing spoke twice

The crowd outgrew the hall. Chen Danqing added an evening lecture.

In March 2010, the first Sino-French Forum on Art Education took place at Xi'an Art Museum. Chen Danqing spoke about art education and entrance exams at the forum, then gave a public lecture that afternoon. People had lined up early, the hall could not hold everyone, and the start was delayed. He apologized to the students left outside and offered another talk that evening. When the museum looked back on its fifth anniversary, it singled out the added lecture for mention.

Source: eurasia.edu Source: eurasia.edu Source: flh.web-32.com Source: topic.artron.net Source: bilibili.com

04 · Plane Tree Avenue, XJTU Xingqing Campus

Even a Fallen Leaf Has to Earn Its Championship

Students did not settle the size contest by eye: they photographed each leaf, traced its edge, and let software calculate the area.

When autumn fills campus with plane tree leaves, XJTU students hold a 'Leaf King' contest. Each entry is flattened and photographed. The image is converted to grayscale, separated by a threshold, traced around its outline, and turned into an area; only then can the largest leaf claim the title. The contest returns with the Golden Plane Tree Festival, though methods and leaf sizes vary by year. It is a particularly engineering-campus joke: even picking up a leaf can become a small experiment before anyone gets to declare a winner.

Source: news.xjtu.edu.cn Source: news.xjtu.edu.cn Source: news.xjtu.edu.cn

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