Chang’an — the Tang capital

1 · POSITION

Chang’an, the Tang capital, covered some 84 square kilometres and held about a million people — at its height in the eighth century, the most populous and cosmopolitan city in the world. The register holds it for the plan that received its strangers: walled wards, two great markets, and a foreign quarter round the Western Market. [1, 2]

2 · A CITY OF WARDS

Internal walls divided the city into more than a hundred wards, whose gates opened in the morning and were locked at night while mounted soldiers patrolled the streets. Drum towers told the time. The two markets stood where the imperial roads and canals met, and opened only from noon until dusk. [2]

3 · EAST AND WEST

The Western Market specialised in foreign goods and the Eastern Market in local produce — salt, tea, silk and horses. The foreign quarter centred on the Western Market, where residents kept their own temples — Zoroastrian, Manichaean and Nestorian Christian. Sogdian merchants from the country round Samarkand were among the dominant traders. [1, 2]

4 · THE WEST MARKET TODAY

Part of the West Market’s site is now the Tang West Market Museum, which preserves original streets, a well and a bridge. The register holds the market under its own code. [3]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. The guest quarters in the note were, by Lung’s account, the Honglu Court’s guest house for foreign envoys; foreign merchants lived round the Western Market. The note now distinguishes the two. Figures of a million foreign residents are not verified. [1–4]