Xi'an &Shaanxi
the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties
The city wall encircles the old town like a sleeping dragon. Eight thousand terracotta warriors stand in their ranks beneath the loess plain east of town. The bells of Da Ci'en still mark dawn and dusk. Xi'an was the start of the Silk Road and the capital of the Tang — and it is the region we run most deeply, on our own ground team, with the access most tours rush past.
Why we run Xi'an
deeply.
Our own Shaanxi ground team.
Not a broker, not a sub-contractor. Our guides, our drivers, our vehicles — the same standard we set in our own training manual.
Guides trained to our standard.
English-speaking, working to the same standard our whole team holds. They carry the medical kit, hold your place in the queue, and answer the questions a plaque can't.
Access by relationship.
Early entry to Pit One. A keeper-led tour of the kneeling-archer pit. VIP track at Shaanxi History Museum. None of this is bookable online.
No shopping detours.
No jade factory. No silk demonstration. No tea-house upsell. The all-inclusive price is what you pay.
Nine reasons
Xi'an rewards
the patient.
A first trip can fit them in four days. A second trip earns the seventh. These are the moments — and the way we open them — that earn Xi'an its reputation among travellers who've already seen Beijing.
Terracotta Army(Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum)
Eight thousand warriors stand in their ranks beneath the loess plain east of Xi'an — Qin Shi Huang's terracotta army, unearthed in 1974 by a farmer digging a well. Pit One is famous; Pit Three and the kneeling archers in Pit Two are where the craftsmanship lands hardest.
We have you inside Pit One before the day's first coach arrives, with a private guide who knew the dig from the eighties — and a stop in one of the side galleries the queue routes skip.
Read the dedicated The Terracotta Warriors page
Xi'an City Wall(Ming Hongwu)
Nearly fourteen kilometres of Ming-dynasty rampart encircle the old town like a sleeping dragon — a complete city wall, watchtowers and all, that you can walk, ride or cycle the length of in a morning.
Sunrise bike ride from the South Gate before the wall opens to day visitors. Bikes booked under our name; tea and Xi'an buns waiting at the half-hour rest at Wenchang Gate.
Read the dedicated Xi'an's City Wall page
Huaqing Palace(Tang hot springs)
Imperial hot springs at the foot of Lishan Mountain, where emperors took the waters across more than three thousand years — and where, in December 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped and the course of modern China turned.
Our guide is a Tang-history specialist who tells the courtly intrigues — Yang Guifei's bathing pavilion, the Five-Room Hall of the Xi'an Incident — without reading the plaques.
Read the dedicated Huaqing Palace page
Big Wild Goose Pagoda(Da Ci'en Temple)
The seventh-century tower where Xuanzang translated the sutras he carried back from India — Tang-dynasty Buddhism's intellectual centre, still working today. Seven storeys of weathered brick climbing above the Da Ci'en compound.
We bring you for the quiet hour before the daily four o'clock chants — the monks' bell echoing through the empty courtyard while you climb the inside stair.
Yongxingfang food street
Fifty-plus Shaanxi specialty food operators in a Tang City 108 Fangs setting — pulled noodles thrown in the air, paper-thin liang-pi, biang-biang noodles the width of belts, persimmon cakes from the Qinling. The taste of the Silk Road, in two narrow lanes.
A curated six-stop tasting with the operators we know by name, including the second-generation biang-biang noodle counter pulled at the bench ten metres from where you sit.
Tang Paradise(Datang Furong Yuan)
An after-dark walk through the recreated Tang quarter — pavilions, water gardens, performers in Tang dress — built around Furong Lake on the southern edge of the old Tang capital.
We bring you for the last hour, when the crowds thin and the lanterns reflect off the still pools. A private table at the Tang-style tea house with a view across the Furong Lake fountain.
Bell & Drum Towers
Morning bells from the Bell Tower at the city's centre, evening drums from the Drum Tower a hundred metres west — the rhythm that has marked Xi'an's days for six hundred years. The view from the top is the entire old town, ringed by its Ming wall.
Private dawn climb of the Drum Tower, when the keeper opens the upper pavilion just for us — and you hear the day's first drum struck from beside the drummer.
Shaanxi Historical Museum
The single best collection of artefacts from the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties — the dynasties that ran their courts from Xi'an. Free admission means three-hour queues for the ordinary visitor.
VIP entry on the partner track — straight in, no queue. A specialist Tang-ceramics curator joins us through the gilded-silver gallery, and you handle a reproduction Tang horse from the workshop downstairs.
Huashan(Mount Hua)
One of the Five Sacred Mountains of China, two hours east of Xi'an — five vertiginous granite peaks, plank roads pinned to the cliffs, and the steep north face that has tested pilgrims for three thousand years.
Cable car up the North Peak by eight a.m.; we walk the four-summit ridge through to West Peak, with a stop at the East Peak teahouse and the Changkong plank-walk for those who want it. Cable car down by mid-afternoon — a day done well.
Read the dedicated Huashan pageThree days,
in shape —
not in stone.
Every trip is rebuilt around you. This is the shape we'd suggest for a first Xi'an stay — and the moments we'd open. Stretch it to five days for Huashan and a half-day in the Qinling; expand to seven for the Yellow River bend and an overnight in the Qinling foothills.
- Day 01
Warriors and walls.
Out east at first light for the terracotta warriors before the coach lanes fill, with a side-pit stop the queue routes skip. Back to the old town for a late lunch, an unhurried afternoon, and the slow climb of the South Gate for a sunset bike along the wall.
- 6:30 a.m. inside Pit One before the coaches.
- Side-pit access with the keeper of the kneeling archers.
- Sunset bike along the South Wall, tea at Wenchang Gate.
- Day 02
Tang court, Silk Road taste.
Morning at Huaqing for Yang Guifei's bathing pavilion and the Five-Room Hall of the Xi'an Incident. Midday quiet at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Evening at Yongxingfang for a six-stop tasting through Shaanxi's intangible-heritage kitchens.
- Yang Guifei's bathing pavilion at Huaqing.
- Quiet hour at Da Ci'en before the four o'clock chants.
- Six-stop tasting at Yongxingfang with the biang-biang counter.
- Day 03
Treasures and afterglow.
VIP-track entry to the Shaanxi Historical Museum's gilded-silver galleries with a specialist curator. Free afternoon in the Muslim Quarter or a courtyard tea house. After-dark walk through Tang Paradise when the crowds thin, with a private table at the tea pavilion overlooking Furong Lake.
- VIP-track entry to the gilded-silver gallery.
- Free afternoon in the Muslim Quarter or a courtyard tea house.
- Last-hour walk through Tang Paradise; private table at the tea pavilion.
Best time
September to November · April to May
Days needed
4 to 6 days
Where it sits
Typically your second or third stop after Beijing
From · per person
US$3,140
Stretch the trip. Stitch in another.
Beijing & the Great Wall
Standard pair. Beijing for the imperial spine; Xi'an for the dynasties that came before.
Read this destinationThe Yangtze
Xi'an by air to Chongqing, downstream through the gorges to Yichang. Two regions, one country.
Read this destinationChengdu
Two-hour flight south. Tea-house culture, pandas, and Sichuan's sleepier pace.
Read this destination
A first sketch of
your Xi'an —
by reply tomorrow.
Tell us a month and a budget band, and our specialist will come back with a first-draft route through Xi'an, an honest all-inclusive price, and the next two destinations that pair well. No deposit. No obligation. No forced shopping, ever.