Xi’An Tree in Mixc

The “Tree of Life,” standing in the center of the MixC Plaza in Xi’an, is a rising new landmark in the ancient capital. Designed by Heatherwick Studio in the UK, the 57-meter-tall building is inspired by the thousand-year-old ginkgo tree planted by Emperor Taizong of Tang in the Guanyin Temple in Xi’an. It transforms the tree’s millennia-old vitality into a highly modern architectural language. The “Tree of Life” features 60 giant steel structural leaves that intertwine and spread like ginkgo leaves, supporting seven staggered platforms. From bottom to top, it presents seven ecological landscapes: dry grassland, arid desert, dry shrubland, temperate broad-leaved forest, mountain forest, alpine tundra, and temperate grassland, seemingly condensing the geographical features along the ancient Silk Road into a single entity. Strolling through it, visitors feel as if they are walking through a three-dimensional Silk Road garden, encountering completely different natural scenery on each level and experiencing ecological changes across time and space.