Savouring the Ancient Chinese Capital of Xi An
A comprehensive guide to absorbing the rich history and local cultures of Xi’an
Due to its central, strategic location, Xi An 西安 was not only the cultural and economic centre of ancient China but was also the terminus of the Silk Road. What draws most people to this city though is actually located 40km outside of the city. In the district of Lin Tong lies the world-famous terracotta army. Some of the most precious sites from two of China’s most definitive dynasties lie here, making Lin Tong the belly of Chinese history.
The story of Qin Dynasty: 2,200 years ago, the 13-year-old Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇 unified China. He standardised currency as well as the unit of measurement. When he ascended to the throne, he decided he wanted a mausoleum guarded by an afterlife army. This army was buried for 2 millenniums until a group of villagers attempted to dig some well and discovered it in 1974.
The Terracotta Warriors 兵马俑 Bing Ma Yong
Watch a documentary about the site before your visit, to really understand its significance. At the same time 2000 years ago, the other empire that was known to exist was the Roman Empire. Britain, Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe did not even exist. They were merely home to dozens of small tribal kingdoms. While these people hadn’t developed writing, the Chinese were building these statues larger than themselves, in a massive quantity (8000 soldiers, 670 horses and 130 chariots) at an unprecedented rate (40 years). Even more mind-blowing is that no two figures are exactly alike.
Upon first glance, no one would’ve guessed that the Terracotta Warriors were originally colourful. Apparently, they have lost its colour as the lacquer became detached as it stuck to the earth instead of to the warriors during excavation. After being buried for so long, even if the warriors were successfully excavated with the lacquer layer intact, the layer would curl so fast in only 15 seconds. Once exposed to the dry air of Xi An, the colourful lacquer carrying 2,200 years of history would fall off in 4 minutes.
How to get here: Located in Lin Tong about 30–45mins drive away from Xi An, the Terracotta Warriors and tomb sites are accessible by bus 306 from Xi An Train Station 西安火车站. Do prepare for the crowd, regardless of the day of the week you plan to visit.
Price: ¥120 (adult) / ¥60 (students excl. post-grads)
Guide: If you want more information as you wander around the site, there are many guides available. The rate varies: public Chinese language tour (20–30 people in a group) costs ¥25–35 per person; private Chinese language tour for ¥90 per group; private English language tour for ¥200 per group.
The father of Chinese historiography who collected all the extant oral traditions of his day, historian Si Ma Qian 司马迁, wrote that Mount Li was selected for the emperor’s tomb because it was considered a particularly auspicious location with its rich gold and jade mines. It was recorded that the building of the mausoleum began in 246 BC and supposedly took over 700,000 labourers and 11 years to complete. This record, however, made no mention of The Terracotta Warriors.
Tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇陵 Qin Shi Huang Ling
In addition to the Terracotta Warriors, your ticket will include an entrance to the tomb site which you can reach by a short shuttle. The tomb itself is yet to be excavated due to various reasons such as a large amount of mercury detected in the tomb. The government and archaeologists decide to bar any excavation until they have figured out a mature protection technology, to prevent irreversible destruction to these invaluable historical artefacts. While the tomb mound was hike-able 10 years ago, it is now under protection so is only visible from afar.
Avoid: While in the area, you will spot some signs for 鸿门宴 Hong Men Yan (lit: Feast at Swan Goose Gate) and 秦陵地宫 Qin Shi Di Gong. These are not part of the original Terracotta Warrior exhibit and require separate tickets. I was advised to avoid these so-called tourist traps. Apparently one of theme showcases fake Terracotta Warrior sculptures.
History Fun Fact: For Chinese history buffs out there, Hong Men Yan was actually a feast held at Hong Gate by Xiang Yu 项羽 for his rival Liu Bang 刘邦 in 206 BC. During the feast, an attempt was made on Liu’s life but he survived and continued to become the future Han emperor. Hence, in Chinese culture, the term Hong Men Yan is used figuratively to refer to a meeting contrived as a trap. The original location was roughly in this district, Lin Tong.
the former two sites were all about the Qin dynasty, the next two are all about the Tang Dynasty. Often touted one of the two greatest Chinese dynasties — the other being the Song, the Tang period was a golden age of reform and cultural advancement. The city of Xi An was a representative city of ancient China as it had been the capital from 200 BCE all the way to 904 CE in Tang Dynasty. This ancient capital was named Chang An 长安 after 长久之岸 chang jiu zhi an, which roughly translates to “long term political stability”.
At this time, the capital city was a cultural if not a political ‘melting pot’. The Tang era had about one million foreign residents, half of whom lived in Chang An. During the entire Tang period, there were altogether 369 prime ministers from 98 surname groups, 17.4% of which are of non-Chinese ethnic origins account — the highest percentage of any Chinese dynasty. The fact that so many foreigners (including many who were not even born within the empire and were in all matters still foreign subjects) had served in the highest ranks of the empire showed a remarkable degree of tolerance for foreigners.
Monks arrived from India and Tibet, Turkic soldiers marched in the Tang armies as warriors, auxiliaries and generalissimos, Sogdian (Persian) merchants rode on great Bactrian camels and thousands more plied exotic wares. There were professional Korean soldiers, thousands of Korean ex-pats from Silla, and Japanese students and pilgrims. Thousands of Uyghurs lived in the city during the middle of the Tang dynasty.
The seventh century was a time of momentous social change and exchange; the official examination system enabled educated men without family connections to serve as government officials. This new social elite gradually replaced the old aristocracy, and the recruitment of useful learned men from the south contributed to a robust bureaucracy. This meritocratic standard also applied to foreign soldiers and nobles who showed usefulness to the state, and it was for this reason that many Tang generals hailed from former Gokturk and Goguryeo Korean nobility.
Hua Qing Pool 华清宫 Hua Qing Gong
This site was first built by Emperor Taizong and a walled palace was added by Emperor Xuanzong in 747 AD. On the way back from the Terracotta Warriors, you can easily stop by this palace and its garden, located at the foot of Li Shan Mountain 骊山, also in the district of Lin Tong,
The hot spring here maintains a temperature of about 40 degrees throughout the year so it made the perfect site for Emperor Xuanzong to spend winter with his favourite concubine Yang Guifei. Here, you can soak in the same pool that Yang Gui Fei bathed in, at Hua Qing Wen Quan 华清温泉 for ¥259.
This ancient palace was also where Chiang Kai Shek was staying before he was famously taken for negotiations with the Communist Party. After wandering around the Tang dynasty pavilions, bridges and pools, you can head to the peak of Li Shan. Many take the cable car part of the way and walk for 1–2 hours to see another palace and an aviary on the mountain.
If you don’t feel like forking over ¥200 for a hot bath, you can head for the nearby hotel spring (15mins drive), 芷阳温泉 which is equipped with 15 different pools of different fragrance and benefits. At the time of the visit in 2019, the entrance costs ¥138 for adults, ¥69 for student or ¥82 for adults on Mondays. You can check out to see what voucher is available on 大众点评. A room here starts from ¥400 should you rather stay the night instead of rushing back to Xi An.
Price: ¥120 adult / ¥60 student
Inside the ground of Hua Qing Pool is a performance, Chang Hen Ge. The title is derived from an epic Tang dynasty poem dated from 809 written by famous Chinese poet Bai Ju Yii 白居易, about the love story between Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei.
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow 长恨歌 Chang Hen Ge
This performance uses the striking landscape of the palace ground as the backdrop. As it is completely outside, wear enough for the evening breeze. In the case of rain, a raincoat is provided for free.
Price: ¥230–350 (for your reference, I paid ¥318 for 中B Middle B second-row seating).
Online tickets are only available for Chinese citizens with ID card 身份证 shen fen zheng, so foreigners must purchase the ticket on-site. Fortunately, many hotels in China can offer slightly cheaper performance ticket prices if they work directly with vendors so your hotels might be able to organise tickets for you.
Schedule: There are 3 performances in a day, the first one starting at 8.10 pm (entrance commences a 7.30 pm).
Transport: If you are going back to Xi An on the same day, organise a van transport beforehand for ¥30, or Didi/taxi ¥90. Otherwise, stay the night in Lin Tong.
In addition to all of these historical sites, the city of Xi An also offers incredible wealth of history. The city’s urban construction history itself is about 3000 years old. 37% of the current Xi’an urban space is overlying the cities from China’s four famous dynasties that had made this area their capitals: Zhou; Qin; Han; and Tang. Here are some places that will help you understand the importance of this city in Chinese history:
Little Goose Pagoda & Xi An Museum
小雁塔 Xiao Yan Ta & 西安博物馆 Xi An Bo Wu Guan
Located on the southwestern fringe outside of the city wall, Little Goose Pagoda can be easily combined with Xi An museum. In the grounds of Little Goose Pagoda, catch a shadow puppet show at the Shadow Puppet Theatre 皮影戏表演 pi ying xi biao yan. This is one of my favourites finds in the city as its intangible cultural heritage workshop provides an interactive way to understand the culture. You can assemble your own shadow puppet or block print an engraved roof tile ridge cap workshop. In Xi An museum’s basement level, you can find a complete model of Xi An city.
Price: Free admission. ¥30 for shadow puppet performance, or ¥55 combo ticket for the same performance and an assemble-your-own-shadow-puppet workshop. If you are buying the voucher on Taobao or Feizhu, it may take up to 30mins to 1 hour to be processed.
Big Goose Pagoda
大雁塔 Da Yan Ta
With its squarish body (instead of round), Big Goose Pagoda is one of China’s best examples of a Tang style pagoda. It was originally completed in AD652 to house Buddhist sutras brought back from India by the monk Xuan Zang, whose travels inspired one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West 西遊記 Xi You Ji.
Xi An’s most famous pagoda offers an excellent view of the city. Up here, you can clearly see the city planning of modern Xi’an, which is influenced by the symmetrical layout of its predecessor Chang’an in the Tang Dynasty. Beside the pagoda, wander around the gardens and sit in the pavilion. You might catch a man playing ancient Chinese guitar lute.
Price: ¥50 to enter the pagoda grounds, ¥40 to climb the pagoda.
Shaan Xi History Museum
陕西历史博物馆 Shan Xi li sho bo wu guan
Perhaps the best history museums in China, this museum provides a miniature overview of the thousands of years of Chinese history from prehistoric all the way to Tang Dynasty, including the 13 feudal dynasties during which Chang’An sat as the ancient imperial capital.
My personal favourite was the rich collection of Buddhism art (primarily during Northern Zhou and Jin) and the Tang pottery figures.
Note: The museum is located to the northwest of Big Goose Pagoda.
Price: The museum gives out 6000 free tickets/day, which you must pre-book from its WeChat app 1 to 3 days before your visit (search 陕西历史博物馆 in Wechat’s mini-programs). Arrive within the selected time slot with your passport to pick up your ticket. Otherwise, fork up the ¥30 admission fee.
Bell Tower and City Wall
Since Xi An is fortunate enough to have kept its ancient city wall, many visitors bike on the Old City Wall, not forgetting to visit the Bell and Drum Towers. Avoid the hottest hours of the day because there is no shade at all on the wall.
Lastly, this city is not all about past glories. What I love about the city is while it has grown without forgetting its past. The city has built Qujiang Creative Cultural Centre as well as an innovation incubation district called Public Creative Space Alliance in Beilin district. The government is also building Xixian New Area, which is a new city themed with innovative urban development model. When I visited it in 2019, it wasn’t fully operational but there were some cool exhibitions about the methodology of ‘porous’ city which maximised water retention (China has 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of its freshwater, so access to fresh water is actually an issue no one talks about here).
OK back to the metropolitan city of Xi An, here are some places I’ve found to best reflect the unique everyday life of its people:
Tian Kong Hotel 天宝酒店 Tian Kong jiu dian
When you face south-east in your climb up the Big Goose Pagoda, you can immediately spot this hotel’s colourful facade. After wandering the grounds of Big Goose Pagoda, walk towards this hotel and sneak around behind its colourful mural to find a very local neighbourhood almost untouched by Xi An’s modernisation.
Hui Street 回民街 Hui min jie
Islam came to China during the Tang dynasty via Iranian traders, who were primarily concerned with trading and commerce. Since then, Muslims played a major role in foreign trade during the Song dynasty and in the army during the Ming dynasty. Over time, there are many intermarriages between Han and Hui. Hence racially and linguistically, the Hui — whose ancestors include Persian, Central Asian and Arab traders who plied the Silk Road — are well integrated into mainstream Chinese life due to their cultural affinity to the Han and their geographic dispersal.
The backstreets leading north from the Drum Tower 鼓楼 Gu Lou have been home to the city’s Hui (non-Uyghur Chinese Muslim) community for centuries. Hui Street has become Xi An’s most famous areas for local snack 小吃 xiao chi. While some parts now feel very commercial, you can stroll around 清真，兵尔里夜宵肉丸糊辣汤 to taste the authentic street. At one end of the street, you can find the largest mosque in China, the Great Mosque 清真大寺 Qing Zhen Da Si.
Hua Wen Da Xia 文化大厦
This is an outdoor restaurant and entertainment area that become alive at night. Pleasant for an evening stroll. A personal favourite is 西安马柯美术博物馆, a cafe that also serves as a gallery.
Ancient Culture Street 书院门 Shu Yuan Men
The shops in this area are perfect to buy non-tacky souvenirs from. Most of them sell 文房四宝 wen fang si bao, the basic 4 items required for Chinese calligraphy.
Entry is free, just head to the gate and look for an entry into a souvenir shop that is in charge of issuing out the entry ticket. You need to have your passport.
Yan Ji You (Mai Ke Dian) Bookstore 言几又 (迈科店)
Tomato Ikegai designed this bookstore to be a place for encounters between ‘people, cultures, and books from around the world’. Combining the typologies of ‘library’ and ‘gallery’, the bookstore’s most impressive feature is the staircase which also acts as a courtyard.
Banpo International Arts Zone
Since 2006, artists from Xi’an Fine Arts Academy began setting up studios in Fangzhicheng, or Textile City, eventually creating an informal but lively community of artists in what had once been a thriving factory. This area is now turned into an Arts Zone.
I didn’t have a chance to visit so I am actually unsure if it has been developed alongside the artists in mind, or instead has displaced the artists who had actually established the area as a burgeoning art scene. So have a visit and let me know?
If you find your way to Xi An, consider making a trip to China’s most dangerous mountain, Hua Shan. Read this guide to make the most out of a day on this sacred mountain.
This post is part of the Life in China series.1. China Survival Guide
Apps that will make your Chinese experience a whole lot better2. China Through Films
Cinematic trips into the voyage of the breathtaking world of traditional and contemporary China, and whatever lies in between.3. Obscure Parks of Beijing
This city that may seem barren at first, hides within it, plenty of picturesque green pockets.I hope they will help you begin to understand this mind-boggling country.
