Chang'an: The Tang Dynasty Capital at the World's Crossroads, 618-755 CE | Calm Bedtime History

It is the year 742, and the sun rises over the outer walls of Chang'an, casting the shadow of the city's grid upon fields of mulberry trees. The drum at the Gate of Bright Virtue has sounded, and the great doors swing open for another day. You stand on the Vermilion Bird Avenue, a boulevard one hundred and fifty metres wide, where Persian merchants lead camel trains from the Western Market and a young scholar from the eastern provinces walks toward the examination halls, his breath visible in the cold morning air.