Forest of Tablets is situated in the old location of Confucian temple on San Xue Street, Xi'an City. It is the gathering place of tablet stone relics of China and the protected unit of important relics of the whole country.
The history of setting up the Forest of Tablets can be traced up to the Five Dynasties of final Tang stage. It was started from preserving the Tang Dynasty sculpture, "Stone Platform of the Classic of Filial Piety" and "Kaicheng Stone Sutra". During the fifth year of Emperor Zhe Zhong's reign of the Sung Dynasty (1090), houses, galleries and pavillions etc. were built in the place of today Forest of Tablets to exhibit and protect the tablet stones, thus starting the establishment of Xi'an Forest of Tablets. Later on repairs on the Forest of Tablets were continuously done. Due to the collection and supplementary sculpture of large quantity of tablet stones, its scale was getting bigger and bigger. Because tablet stones stood like forest, therefore it began to be called Forest of Tablets in the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
In the Forest of Tablets, more than 2300 tablets from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty have been kept and more than 1000 pieces are displayed. At present, there are 7 show rooms, 6 galleries and one tablet pavilion. The tablet records have blended politics, history, culture and calligraphy arts together in harmony, rich in content and great in historic and art values.
Transportation: Bus 14, 402, 239 are accessible and getting off at Bowuguan bus station.
Ticket: 30 yuan (US$1=8.3 yuan).
Open Time: 8:30--18：30
(china.org.cn February 21, 2003)
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