The Museum of steles (Stone forest) opened in XI'an in 1944, during the reign of Emperor song dynasty. The Museum has become widely known in the world and in China thanks to a rich collection of unusual stone columns. The Museum houses more than a thousand columns with inscriptions from the time of the Han dynasty (206-220 BC) to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912.).

The area of the Museum - 31 thousand square meters, and the whole territory is divided into 7 exhibition halls. It presents historical documents, stone carvings, specimens of ancient calligraphy.

In the first room focuses on the texts of Confucius. Excerpts of these texts are 14th in the stelae of stone. Among these works are "the Book of Changes", "Book of Songs", "Literary collection" of Confucius and other works. The inscriptions on the stones have been more than 2 thousand years ago.

Exhibition hall No. 2 shows a stone stele, on which is shown the best examples of calligraphy. The authors of these calligraphic samples are famous master who lived during the time of the reign of the Emperor of the Tang dynasty.

The third hall is also presented calligraphy works. On steles of this Department dealt in classical calligraphy and hieroglyphics. Also presents various versions of the fonts that were used in cursive documents, in cursive and in ordinary letters. These images give visitors an idea of how developed the Chinese written language.

In the fourth room contains stone sculptures. There are exhibited more than 200 exhibits, created during the reign of the Emperor Han dynasty, that is, with 206-220 BC, as well as those that were created during the Tang (618-907). In this Department so many images of Confucius, Buddhist Scriptures in the Tang dynasty, and many other relics.

The fifth room is the stele with inscriptions telling about the historical facts of the period from the song to Qing dynasties. It was after this era and ended the Imperial period of China.

In the sixth and seventh hall presents poetical works, the monuments of ancient classical literature, and more.