Small Wild Goose Pagoda & Xi'an Museum

The Small Wild Goose Pagoda stands within the grounds of Jianfu Temple on Youyi West Road in Beilin District, paired since 2007 with the adjacent Xi'an Museum in a single park complex. The pagoda was built between 707 and 709 CE under Tang Emperor Zhongzong, originally rising 15 stories to house Buddhist scriptures, in a dense-eave brick style distinct from the more open tiers of the nearby Big Wild Goose Pagoda. A major earthquake in 1556 cracked the pagoda from top to bottom and reduced its height to the current 13 stories, roughly 43 meters; local tradition holds that a later earthquake resealed the crack, an event still referenced in temple lore. The surrounding Jianfu Temple retains Ming and Qing-era halls with Buddhist statuary and a large bronze bell, though most original Tang temple structures were lost over the centuries. The adjoining Xi'an Museum, a modern building with a distinctive circular roof evoking a bronze mirror, opened in 2007 and presents the city's history from the Zhou dynasty through the Qing using artifacts excavated within Xi'an's municipal boundaries, including Tang dynasty tri-color glazed ceramics, gold ornaments, and models reconstructing the layout of the Tang capital Chang'an, of which the pagoda itself was once a part. Together the pagoda park and museum form a quieter, less crowded counterpart to the city's larger historical sites, with the pagoda grounds functioning as a public park with mature trees and open lawns.