Xi'an, China: Terracotta Army, city wall and an ancient capital, from the Wikivoyage guide

Xi'an (西安) is a city in Shaanxi Province and the oldest surviving capital of ancient China, home, as the Wikivoyage guide puts it, to thousands of years of Chinese heritage. The guide quotes a saying: "if you have not been to Xi'an, you have not been to China!"

The Terracotta Warriors. Photo: public domain.

A very old capital

The guide says Xi'an is more than 3,000 years old and was known anciently as Chang'an. It served as capital for the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties among others, and was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road: according to the guide, the road began in the second century BC when Emperor Wu of the Western Han sent Zhang Qian on diplomatic missions to the Western Regions, and ran from Chang'an across the Hexi Corridor and Dunhuang and on to Europe. The guide calls Tang Chang'an the largest and most magnificent city in the world of its time, and says its layout is the basis of the street plan of today's Xi'an. It also says recorded history reaches back to the Neolithic: Neolithic city ruins more than 6,000 years old were found at Yangguanzhai in 2008, and the guide calls that the earliest known city site in China.

Xi'an has a permanent population of 8.7 million, about 5.1 million of them in the urban area. It lies on the Guanzhong Plain in the Yellow River basin, with the Qinling Mountains to the south. The climate is warm temperate and semi-arid with distinct seasons. The guide advises spring and autumn for a visit: summer sun is intense at midday, so avoid unshaded spots such as the city wall, and winters are cold and dry.

City view from the Great Wild Goose Pagoda. Photo: chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Finding your way

Xi'an's international airport is 40 km northwest of the centre, in Xianyang, and most visitors arrive by high-speed train at Xi'an North Railway Station, 15 km north of the centre, which has direct services to cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou. Metro line 2 runs from the station to the centre. The old city is a rectangle within the city wall, and the Bell Tower sits at its dead center, with North, East, South and West Streets running out from it. Locals speak of "within the city walls" and "outside the city walls": the inner city is old Xi'an, where buildings stay low because of government policy and a traditional way of life persists, while the southern outside, with its malls and a high-tech zone, is the new Xi'an.

What to see

The Bell Tower. Photo: David Castor, public domain.

• The Terracotta Army: warriors and horses found in three pits, and perhaps the most popular attraction in Shaanxi and one of the most popular in China. The guide says the on-site museum houses 8,000 lifelike warriors, about 100 chariots and 40,000 weapons, that the dig is still active, and that UNESCO listed the site in 1987. It suggests visiting pit 3, then 2, then 1 so each is more impressive than the last.

Terracotta warriors and horses in a pit. Photo: Gary Todd, CC0.

• The City Wall: the guide calls it the world's largest city wall. Restored, it is 12 m high and 13.7 km long, built in the Ming dynasty on the foundation of the Tang imperial city wall. You can walk the loop in 4 to 5 hours or cycle it, and it is lit at night. A marathon has been run on top of it each November since 1993.
• Bell and Drum Towers: at the center of the old city and 200 meters apart, with tolling bells and drums and short musical performances; both glow at night.
• Great Wild Goose Pagoda: built in 652 AD and the emblem of the city, with a fountain and music shows in front of it. The Little Wild Goose Pagoda was completed in 709 AD and is next to the Xi'an Museum.
• Museums: the Shaanxi History Museum spans the province's history from the Neolithic to the Qing dynasty, with well preserved Banpo pottery, Shang bronzes and Tang royal pieces; the guide says its old-fashioned format may appeal mainly to enthusiasts. The Beilin Museum holds about 4000 inscribed stone tablets, including the 7th-century Nestorian Stele recording the arrival of Nestorian Christianity in China.
• Daming Palace Park: the site of a Tang palace with a monumental gate, a model of the palace and partly restored ruins; the guide says the site is more than 4 times the size of the Forbidden City.
• Other sites: the Banpo Village ruins, a 6,000-year-old village with houses, a pottery area and a burial ground; Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum, whose burial chamber has not been excavated; Huaqing Palace, built near hot springs by a Tang emperor, though most of today's buildings are later and only the Tang baths are original; and the Lantian Man site, where a skull was found in 1964, a year after a jaw, of a Homo erectus subspecies.
• Religious sites: the Great Mosque, built in the Ming dynasty in a traditional Chinese style for about 1,000 worshippers and still used by the Hui community; the City God Temple, a Taoist temple established in 1387; Daxingshan Temple, where monks translated Buddhist texts in the Tang dynasty; and Guangren Temple, which the guide calls the only Tibetan Buddhist temple in Shaanxi.

What to eat

Biang biang noodles. Photo: Gary Soup, CC BY 2.0.

The Muslim Quarter, a set of alleys northwest of the Bell Tower, is the place for street food, although the guide says prices are high there and the quality can be uneven, so it recommends trying mainly the Hui dishes. Specialties include:

• Yangrou paomo: lamb soup with thick bread that the diner tears into small pieces, as small as a pinky fingernail, before the soup is poured over.
• Biang biang noodles: wide, spiced noodles in broth with toppings such as eggs, tomato or beef, written with a very complex 58-stroke character.
• Rou jia mo: a bun filled with pork, beef or lamb, the closest thing to a hamburger, best from the Muslim Quarter.
• Liangpi: cold noodles of wheat or rice flour dressed with soy sauce, chili oil and vinegar.
• Dumplings and sweets: basket-steamed dumplings, soup-filled steamed buns, fried persimmon cakes and green bean cakes.

Practical notes

Xi'an is generally quite safe, with pickpockets in crowds the main worry. The guide warns about hotel touts at the train station and taxi drivers near the station and the airport bus stop who may charge far above the metered fare. Huashan National Park lies 120 km east and takes 35 minutes by high-speed train, and Xianyang, once part of Xi'an, is a metro ride away.

Sources

• "Xi'an" on Wikivoyage, by its contributors (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Xi'an), under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed here: rewritten in hubnx's own words and heavily condensed; prices, opening hours, phone numbers, shops, hotels, restaurants and some photos are left out, and the guide's conflicting counts of dynasties are not repeated. This page stays under CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Photo credits: Terracotta Warriors and Bell Tower (public domain, the latter by David Castor); chensiyuan (CC BY-SA 4.0); Gary Todd (CC0); Gary Soup (CC BY 2.0).
• Wikivoyage contributors; rewritten in hubnx's own words.