The history of the Xi'an conservation planning of historic cities is reviewed in this paper, focusing on the realistic dilemma of the "destruction for conservation" and "destruction for construction", as well as problems of the conservation of the Chinese historical cities generally in concept, principle and mechanism. Based on the interpretation of the development and the evolution of the idea of the protection of the "cultural heritage", the survey of the heritage resources of the background and the characteristics in Ming city, this paper puts forward the conservation concept and the implementation strategy from the "historical stationary objects" to the "symbiotic heritage" in terms of "historical depth" and "sustainable flexibility".

historical layers  /  sustainable living  /  historical stationary objects  /  symbiotic heritage  /  Ming City in Xi'an