China Pictures - The Changle Palace was built in the southeast of the city

Each gate was connected to the streets, ensuring a convenient traffic. The city had eight main avenues, with the longest one of 5,500 meters long and 45 meters wide. Each street was divided into three ways,China Pictures, with the middle one only used by the emperor himself and the side ones for ordinary citizens. Various kinds of trees, such as pagoda tree, elm, pine, and cypress, grew along both sides of the streets, which divided the city into regular-shaped residential and downtown areas. During its most flourishing period, Chang'an City had a population of 240,000 of 88,000 households. It was the first large-scale and densely populated city in Chinese history. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡Palaces, residences for nobles, official residences, and temples were the main constructions inside the city. The Changle Palace was built in the southeast of the city, hence it was also known as the East Palace. In the early Han Dynasty, emperors used the palace to receive officials and Emperor Huidi changed it into the residential palace for the queen mother. Surrounded by walls with a perimeter of 10,000 meters, the palace took an irregular shape and covered an area of 6 square kilometers, occupying nearly 1/6 of the total city area. Inside the palace were a front hall, the Linhua Hall, the Changxin Hall, the Changqiu Hall, the Yongshou Hall, the Shenxian Hall, the Yongchang Hall, and the Bell Room. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡Built in the southwest of the city, the Weiyang Palace was also known as the West Palace, where the emperor met with officials. Covering an area of 5 square kilometers, the palace had a square shape, with walls built on four sides, of which the east and the west walls were 2150 meters long each, and the south and the north ones 2250 long each. A gate was open on each of the four sides. The east and north gates each had a watchtower, and the east one was open for the feudal princes who wanted to meet with the emperor while the north one was for ordinary people. Inside the palace were over 40 halls and pavilions, including the front hall, Xuanshi Hall, Wenshi Hall, Qingliang Hall, Qilin Hall, Jinhua Hall, and Chengming Hall, etc. Once occupied by emperors of 7 dynasties, namely the Western Han, Western Jin, Former Zhao, pre-Qin, post-Qin, Western Wei, and Northern Zhou successively, the palace has become the most famous one in Chinese history. According to survey, the front hall, situated in the center of the palace, had a foundation site of 350 meters long from south to north, 200 meters wide from east to west, and 15 meters at the highest point which caused by the Dragon-Head Hill.