Xi'an Travel Guide

Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi province and an old capital once called Chang'an. Many dynasties, among them the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang, placed their capitals here, and as the eastern starting point of the Silk Road it saw goods and people pass between east and west. Remains that tell of that long history still stand in places across the city.The city wall encircling the center was consolidated in the Ming dynasty and runs 13.74 kilometers, the most completely preserved ancient city wall in China. Rent a bicycle at Yongning Gate, the south gate, and you can ride a full circuit while looking down on the old streets spread inside the wall. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower rising in the center are also Ming-dynasty structures, and at night they appear lit by lamps.The mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and its pits of terracotta warriors, in the eastern outskirts, were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1987. The ranks of life-sized soldiers and horses convey the technology and scale of the Qin era. Back in the city, the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, built to house the scriptures that the monk Xuanzang brought back, rises overhead, and the Datang Everbright City around it bustles as a night district that calls the Tang era to mind. The pagoda is included in the World Heritage site of the Silk Roads, the Routes Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor.The Shaanxi History Museum displays masterpieces from prehistoric times to the Tang, and at the Banpo site you can see the remains of a Neolithic village. The heart of the food scene is the Muslim Quarter, where Hui families live. Flavors of wheat and lamb line the streets: yangrou paomo, bread torn into lamb soup, roujiamo, braised meat tucked into flatbread, and biangbiang noodles, pulled wide by hand. High-speed rail links the city with Beijing and Chengdu too, making it a place where you can savor history and food all day long.