Xi’an City Break

Three days in the old Imperial capital

Recommended days	3
Budget	££
Difficulty	Medium

We flew to Xi’an from Beijing and it is another of China’s cities with a huge tourist draw. Our Xi’an city break allowed us to see the Terracotta Warriors, the city wall, and the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda the city was often the capital and was the starting point of the great Silk Road to the west. This trip was booked with On The Go Tours.

Although diverse isn’t really a word I’d use about China the city has been influenced by traders for hundreds of years so had a mosque and an obviously Muslim quarter, although with the current crackdown against the Uighurs I’m not sure how long that’ll last.

Terracotta Warriors

Our first visit was to the Terracotta Warriors complex. Although this is still being excavated, what they have uncovered so far is truly stunning and it ranks as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world.

There are over 2000 figures on display and these are 2000 years old. The complex includes a museum and the three pits of warriors plus various cafes and shops and some disgustingly smelly toilets! The KFC ones were cleaner!

You can visit by bus or taxi as well as a tour. The bus is obviously cheapest but as we wanted to see the springs we opted for the tour. There’s quite a bit of walking involved though, it’s almost a mile from the car park to the warriors.

• 

• 

• 

Huaqing Hot Springs

The tour continued on to the Huaqing Hot Springs which have been used for over a thousand years by the Imperial family. What is there now is obviously heavily restored but still pretty and photogenic. If the weather is good …

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Xi’an City Walls

On the next day we took a tour that started at the city walls. It was an excellent tour as it wasn’t rushed and we had time to look around as well as the usual tourist things. The walls of the city are massive, a real feat of engineering and, probably, forced labour. They are only 700 years old but the scale of them dwarfs anything I’ve seen in Europe.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The tour was fascinating as we also got to go inside the walls themselves and see how they were built. I didn’t get any photos but it helped understand the sheer effort involved to create them.

Muslim Quarter

We continued into the Muslim Quarter with its markets and mosque. The Muslims here are Chinese converts rather than a Turkic people and the mosque was a lovely blend of Chinese and Islamic culture.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Wild Goose Pagoda

I honestly don’t know what was wrong with me at the Wild Goose Pagoda but the photos are, frankly, pathetic. I know the area is quite difficult to photograph as you can’t get far enough away (pre drone era!) but I didn’t manage even one acceptable shot!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Shaanxi Museum

The Shaanxi Museum was memorable for two things. The toilets were terrible but the bronzes on display were absolutely awesome. The oldest artifacts were so strange they almost seemed alien as though they bore no connection with earth. Very impressive though and we were pretty much the only people there when we visited.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

So there you have our Xi’an city break. Very different to Beijing and a lot nicer to just wander around as it still retains a historic core. The city itself is massive but the ancient part is intact inside the walls and the modern skyscrapers are kept well away.

2009