Xi Shi is located in the southwest outside the imperial city. Like Li Fang, the West Market in Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty was surrounded by tall walls. Song Qiu Min's Records of Chang 'an, etc., recorded that it is quite large, covering an area of about 2 square meters per city, with 4 streets and 2 gates on each side of the city wall, which was confirmed by the comprehensive investigation and measurement of the West Market site. "Xi Shi, as the most important market in Chang 'an and even the whole country, conducts closed centralized transactions, that is, a number of similar commodities gather together to form a boss (or equivalent to a line and a store). The city has a special management organization-the municipal bureau and the draw. The trading area is also concentrated in a relatively closed place, surrounded by walls and gates.
According to the results of archaeological excavation, the plane of Xishi site is rectangular, with a length of 103 1 m from north to south and a length of 927 meters from east to west, covering an area of 0.96 square kilometers. Its scope is located in the east of Dongtaoyuan, west of Laomijia Bridge, north of Dongtaoyuan Bridge and south of Northwest Branch of China Aviation Equipment Company. At the time of excavation, there was a rammed fence foundation in the north and east of Xi Shi. There are two equal streets in Xicheng, north-south and east-west, each with a width of 16m. The four streets are criss-crossed and divide the whole city into nine rectangular areas. The distance between the east-west second street and the north-south second street is 327m. There are ditches on both sides of each street, and there are sidewalks with a width of 1m outside the ditches.
The nine districts of Xicheng are surrounded by streets, so that the periphery of each district is facing the street, which is convenient for trading. Every area has alleys that are convenient for internal traffic. Under some alleys, there are culverts built by brick friends, which are connected with ditches on both sides of the street. The ruins of commercial shops unearthed along the street show that the houses are small in scale, 4 to 10 meters wide and more than 3 meters deep, all adjacent to the street; The relative concentration of unearthed similar items also proves the existence of a certain type of shop. For example, jewelry stores have many products such as beads, pearls, agates and crystals, while ironware stores have unearthed a large number of nails, iron bars and small ironware. "The western market is far away from Sannei, and there are many houses around it. The goods in the market are mostly clothes, candles, cakes, medicines and other daily necessities. The western market is more prosperous than the eastern market, and it is the main industrial and commercial area and economic activity center of Chang 'an, so it is also called the "gold market".
Xicheng is close to the starting point of Chang 'an Silk Road in Tang Dynasty, and there are many foreign businessmen living in the surrounding workshops, thus becoming an international trade market. There are businessmen from Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Korea, Baekje, Silla, Japan and other countries and regions. Among them, the "Hu merchants" in Central Asia, Persia (now Iran) and DaShi (now Arabia) are the most, and most of them live in the western market or some shops near the western market. These foreign businessmen sold the spices and medicines they brought to China bureaucrats, and then bought back jewelry, silk and porcelain from China. Therefore, there are many shops opened by foreign businessmen in the western market, such as Persian mansions, jewelry stores, warehouses, hotels and so on. Among them, Ji Hu Restaurant is visited by teenagers from time to time, and there are many girls from the western regions singing and dancing, serving fine wine. Therefore, in Li Bai's Youth Journey, there are poems of "Five-Ling Youth's Gold Market East" and "Laughing into Ji Hu Restaurant".
The Tang government implemented strict regular trading and night market ban system for Chang 'an market, especially for East and West cities. The gates of the two cities also opened and closed with the gates, street gates and square gates of Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty in the morning and evening, and were guarded by doormen.