The smaller and quieter of Xi'an's two Tang dynasty pagodas, built in 707 to house Buddhist sutras brought back from India by the monk Yijing. It originally rose to fifteen storeys; an earthquake knocked off the top two, and what remains is thirteen storeys of dense brickwork tapering elegantly to a flat top. The pagoda sits in a green park around the old Jianfu Temple, with songbirds in the trees and pensioners doing tai chi on the lawns — a very different mood from the grander Big Wild Goose to the south.
Right next door is the Xi'an Museum, which is genuinely excellent: a clean, well-labelled survey of the city's archaeology from Neolithic times through the Tang. It is included with the pagoda ticket and is much less crowded than the famous Shaanxi History Museum nearby.