Forest of Stone Steles (Beilin Museum)

西安碑林博物馆

A stone library where thousands of steles stand like trees

⚠ ¥85; book ahead

Hours

Open daily, 9am–6:30pm (August 8:30am–7pm, last entry 5:30pm)

Tickets

¥85 (half price ¥42) since 12 May 2025; timed slots bookable from 5 days ahead

Address

15 Sanxue Street, Beilin; the south exit opens onto Shuyuanmen, the calligraphy street

The name is literal: room after room of stone slabs two or three times your height, from Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing calligraphy to the Kaicheng classics, the whole Confucian canon carved by the Tang state. The 781 Nestorian Stele, recording Christianity's arrival in China, is here too. Without an interest in calligraphy it can drag, but the Zhaoling horse reliefs from Emperor Taizong's tomb and the new north wing (opened 2025) of Buddhist sculpture and tomb statuary work for anyone. Leave by the south gate and you're on Shuyuanmen, smelling of ink.