North Square Musical Fountain

Beneath the paving of North Square of Giant Wild Goose Pagoda lies a reservoir roughly the size of two football fields. From above, it is revealed by a stepped strip of water and even rows of nozzles leading toward Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The north side was chosen because the road from the city center approaches here; the square was arranged as the main entrance to the new district around Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. During pauses, the water drains away and an open space remains, while during a show a computer controls the pumps so that more than a thousand jets change height independently.

On December thirty-first, two thousand three, Duan Xiannian stood by the fountain that had just been switched on and wept. He later recalled that about one hundred thousand Xi'an residents came to the opening. To him, that crowd meant his risky calculation had worked.

A year earlier, Duan had become head of the Qujiang Development Committee—then responsible for a still-poor urban fringe around Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. He needed to begin developing the district, but there was almost no money for it. Usually, land is sold first, and the proceeds are then used to build roads and improve the area. Duan proposed the reverse order: borrow the money, create a large public space first, draw people there, and only then sell the now more valuable plots and premises.

For this experiment, he chose the north side of Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The recognizable structure could already bring in the public, and the road from central Xi'an approached it from the north. Duan decided to invest five hundred million yuan in the square and showed its design to potential investors. Retail spaces around the edges began to sell while they existed only on the drawings.

The Japanese design company Nikken Sekkei was tasked with making the square the main northern entrance to the new district. The designers extended a long, stepped strip of water toward Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. In dry Xi'an, the vast expanse of water was itself a spectacle, while music and programmable jets made it possible to gather people at an appointed hour. Giant Wild Goose Pagoda remained at the end of the vista: the fountain led to the monument that Duan used as the center of the whole undertaking.

After the opening, land values in Qujiang District rose sharply. Duan obtained funds for the next projects and decided to repeat the same scheme. Beyond the north square appeared Tang Paradise park and the Datang Everbright City quarter, stretching southward. The current long pedestrian route on both sides of Giant Wild Goose Pagoda began with this very fountain.

When there is no show, its central section becomes a square again. Beneath the paving lies a reservoir roughly the size of two football fields. During a program, a computer analyzes the musical signal and sends commands to the pumps: more than a thousand jets can change height independently of one another. The falling water returns to the reservoir and is used again. Duan’s order still operates here: first the spectacle is switched on, then people fill the square.