Xi'an Old City
西安古城 · Xī'ān Gǔchéng
Cycle the most complete city wall in China, then eat your way through a Muslim quarter that has been here for 1,300 years.
Photo: xiquinhosilva · CC BY 2.0 · resized
Xi'an was Chang'an, the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and, under the Tang, the largest city on earth — a million people inside a grid of walled wards, with Persian merchants, Sogdian musicians, Nestorian churches and a Japanese diplomatic mission. The Tang city was vastly bigger than what stands now; the surviving wall is Ming, built in 1370 on the old palace foundations. But it is complete: 13.7 kilometres, 12 metres high, 15 metres thick at the top, with a moat and four gate complexes.
You can cycle the entire circuit in about 100 minutes, and it is the best single thing to do in the city. From up there the old town reads clearly — the Bell Tower dead centre, the Drum Tower west of it, the grey-tiled roofs of the Muslim Quarter, and the modern city pressing in on all four sides.
The Muslim Quarter is the other half of Xi'an. The Hui community here descends from Silk Road traders and has been Muslim and Chinese for over a millennium; the Great Mosque, founded in 742, is built entirely as a Chinese temple complex with courtyards, pavilions and a minaret that looks like a pagoda. The surrounding lanes are the best street-food grid in northern China, and they run late.
Why go
- The only Chinese city where you can cycle a complete intact Ming wall
- Street food that is genuinely distinct from anywhere else in the country
- The Shaanxi History Museum is arguably the best provincial museum in China
- It is the natural base for the Terracotta Army and the start of any Silk Road journey
Highlights
The City Wall
Rent a bike at the South Gate (¥45 for 3 hours) and ride the full loop. Late afternoon into dusk, when the red lanterns come on, is the time to do it.
Muslim Quarter
Beiyuanmen and the lanes off it. Roujiamo (shredded braised beef in a flatbread), yangrou paomo (you crumble the bread yourself), liangpi cold noodles, persimmon doughnuts, and lamb skewers over charcoal.
Great Mosque
Tucked behind the souvenir lanes and easy to miss. Ten quiet courtyards, Arabic calligraphy rendered in Chinese brushwork, and an atmosphere entirely unlike the street outside.
Shaanxi History Museum
370,000 objects across the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang. The Tang gold and silver hoard from Hejiacun is worth the trip alone. Free but ticketed — book seven days ahead, it goes instantly.
Big Wild Goose Pagoda
Built in 652 to house the sutras Xuanzang brought back from India. Climb it for the view, then stay for the enormous musical fountain show on the north square at 20:30.
Photographs
Getting there & practicalities
Getting there
Xi'an North station takes high-speed rail from Beijing (4h30), Shanghai (6h), Chengdu (3h) and Luoyang (1h30). Metro Line 2 connects it to the Bell Tower in 25 minutes. Xianyang airport has a direct metro line and an airport bus.
Tickets
City Wall ¥54; Great Mosque ¥25 (¥15 in winter); Big Wild Goose Pagoda ¥50 grounds plus ¥30 to climb; Shaanxi History Museum free with advance booking, or ¥30 for the Tang treasures hall.
Opening hours
Wall 08:00–22:00 (South Gate); museum 09:00–17:30, closed Mondays; Muslim Quarter food stalls run until around midnight.
Best time of day
Wall at golden hour; Muslim Quarter after 19:00 when the grills fire up.
What everyone gets wrong
- Book the Shaanxi History Museum the moment your dates are fixed — it releases seven days out and sells out in minutes.
- The Muslim Quarter's main drag is touristy; walk two lanes west to Sajinqiao or Dapiyuan for where locals actually eat.
- Tandem bikes on the wall are fun and a bad idea — the surface is uneven brick.
- Xi'an is dry and dusty; spring sandstorms blowing off the loess plateau can grey out the sky for a day.
- Two nights minimum: one for the city, one for the Terracotta Army.
What to eat
- Biangbiang noodles — one enormous belt-wide hand-pulled noodle, written with the most complex character in common use
- Yangrou paomo at Lao Sun Jia: you shred the flatbread into your own bowl and it comes back as soup
- Guantang baozi at Jia San, soup dumplings made with lamb
→Combine it with
Nearby and next
UNESCO
The Terracotta Army 兵马俑
Eight thousand life-size soldiers, every face different, found by farmers digging a well in 1974.
UNESCO
Pingyao Ancient City 平遥古城
A complete walled Ming county town that missed the twentieth century — and invented Chinese banking.
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Mogao Caves & Dunhuang 莫高窟与敦煌
Four hundred and ninety-two painted caves in a desert cliff — a thousand years of Buddhist art, sealed and forgotten for nine centuries.