Historical Background and Overview

As you may know Xi’an, formerly also know as Chang‘an was once the center of the ancient silkroad and the capital of ancient China for a long time. Therefore, it is a „gem“ of Chinese history and every visitor to China should visit Xi‘an.

What we recommend is to visit following spots. It can be easily and relaxed be done in a 4 day trip, but also in a 3 day trip if you really pack it.

• Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum (aka „Terracotta Army“)
• any show, preferably you can visit after the Terracotta Army: Huaqing Hot Spring Palace for the Show of “Song of Everlasting Sorrow”
• Xian Bell Tower (it is located in the middle of the city)
• Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
• Small Wild Goose Pagoda (Xiaoyan Pagoda)
• Muslim Quarter and Great Mosque
• Ancient City Wall
• Tang Paradise Park
• Xi’an Catholic Church
• Shaanxi History Museum (we didn’t go there, but it is supposed to be good)
• Daming Park

If you take one more day, you can go to Mount Huashan 华山 (Huashan Town, Huayin City, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province 陕西省渭南市华阴市华山), which is a 2 hour drive away from Xi’an and a full day tour.

June is a good time to visit, there is mostly no rain, but the temperatures can go into the upper 30 (centigrade!).

---

Day 1

We took a flight from Dalian around 7:00 and took the 10:30 flight to Xian with Tianjin Airlines. There are flights to Xi’an from any bigger city in China.

We took a taxi, but lately we had the issue that the drivers were very tired and even fell asleep during driving (maybe because of the heat, or just bad luck, we don’t know), so better take the very good subway to your destination.

---

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Arrived at our hotel in the inner city, we took a taxi to the area around the „Giant Wild Goose Pagoda“. There is a huge pedestrian area and a nice shopping center (Joy City) where we had lunch first (at the Blue Frog), then we went around the area and into the „pagoda area“ (you have to pay entrance, about 30 RMB). It was nice, but the pagoda was under restoration, so the view was obstructed by construction supports.

---

Xi’an Ancient City Wall

In the evening we went to the east inner city wall, walked through the area on the base of the wall and then took bikes on the wall (54 RMB entrance) and drove around (45 RMB per person). The drinks on the wall are incredibly expensive, we paid 63 RMB for a water and a juice, so better take your drinks with you before.

---

Day 2

We started after a rough night in our hotel, as the A/C did not work and the window was basically open and the noise level as if sleeping in the middle of the street, had a mediocre breakfast and then started off to go around just outside the city wall.

Later we decided to move to The Westin near the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, which was magnitudes better and even slightly less expensive than our previous Hotel.

---

Outside the city walls

After breakfast, we strolled around on the outer side of the city wall.

---

Daming Park

Around noon, we drove to the Daming Park. There are many ruins, basically only the foundations of old buildings from the Tang Dynasty in a huge, beautiful park. Next to each „ruin“, there is a small replica of how the buildings looked back then. There is also a complete replica of the area, however in a much smaller scale, but still very impressive how the „city“ looked in ancient times. The whole park takes about 2 hours to cross.

Around early afternoon, we took a stop for a quick snack at the Starbucks (they are everywhere in Xi’an ).

---

Small Goose Pagoda

Then we drove to the Small wild goose pagoda, which turned out to be quite a surprise, there are a lot of small corners, stores and lush vegetation, you can completely forget that your are in the middle of a huge city.

After having dinner (again, the blue frog) we went to our new hotel.

---

Muslim Street and Great Mosque

In the evening, we went to the muslim quarter. It is basically a huge area to buy streetfood, souvenirs and other touristy stuff. Hidden in a back alley (we thought we had a fake entrance first) there is „the great mosque“, which was a really strange experience. Why? Because the architecture is completely chinese, and yet, it is a mosque. The writings on the buildings are in simplified, chinese, ancient chinese and arab language. We asked some people there if they spoke arab, and yes, they do.

---

Xi’an Belltower

On the way back, we stopped briefly at the bell tower, its one of the iconic buildings in Xi’an right in the middle of the old town, you cannot miss it. (There is also a beautiful shopping area nearby, but we were too tired to continue.

---

Day 3

So this day we finally went to see the Terracotta Army or also known as the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum. We went there around 13:00, before we had a relaxed morning with some shopping and relaxing. We booked a driver for the whole evening, to be more relaxed and flexible.

---

Terracotta Army aka Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum

First, we went to the terracotta army. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of China.

It is really stunning that it was first unearthed in 1974 by local farmers who dug a well. Ever since then, there are more figures dug up until today. Totally about 6,000 were found so far, including horses and military men. They are build in live size and every one is unique, with different faces, hairstyles, beards, cloth etc. There are „simple“ warriors as well as high ranking officers, basically a whole army, as the name suggests.

There was as well a time limited exhibition of tibetan culture, which was really very impressive. Especially the relationship to indian culture and indian buddhism was visible.

Later, we went for a specialty restaurant with local broad noodles which was delicious, but not too much.

---

The song of everlasting sorrow (@Huaqing Hot Spring Palace)

In the evening, we saw „the song of everlasting sorrow“ within the Huaqing Hot Spring Palace. We had the tickets booked before by a travel agent, we took seats in the „A“ section (not center, but close, about 350 Yuan per person).

It was by far the best show we have ever seen. There were so many different costumes, light effects and special effects in a size that are just incredible (the whole mountain behind the show stage was part of the show). LED screens were driven out of the ground and whole buildings raised and lowered. Scenes with war were enriched with fireworks and flames, lightning and thunderstorms with real water etc.

---

Day 4

The 4th day we relaxed in the hotel in the morning, and went into the nearby Tang Paradise park in the afternoon. There is also a show in the evening, which we didn’t see, but I suppose it must be great (the seats are on moving boats and there are multiple stages around the lake).

---

Tang Dynasty Park (Tang Paradise)

In the afternoon we went to the Tang Dynasty Park and later to the Joy City Mall. On 4F, actually the rooftop, there are many nice bars and you have a great view over the city. We went for a japanese all you can eat, it was „OK“ but not really that good. We still recommend to go onto the roof, there are German restaurants, American, and of course Chinese, so you will find something for your taste.