Xi'an

The Terracotta Army, the city wall and the Muslim Quarter

Xi'an fills two to three days. Spend the first at the Terracotta Army in Lintong and Huaqing Hot Spring, the second riding the city wall, visiting the Beilin stele museum and eating in the Muslim Quarter, and the third at the Shaanxi History Museum and Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Extra days suit Hua Shan.

A walled rectangle forms the old city, with the Bell Tower at its exact centre and four main streets running out to the gates, so orientation is simple. Most of what you will see falls into three zones: inside the walls, the southern suburbs around the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and Lintong, 40 km east, where the Terracotta Army stands.

• Two days: Go east first, while you are fresh: the warriors' pits in the morning, then Huaqing Hot Spring at the foot of Mount Li in the afternoon. On day two, ride the wall, visit the Beilin stele museum just inside the south wall and eat in the Muslim Quarter.
• Three days: Add the south. The Shaanxi History Museum (closed Mondays, last tickets 90 minutes before closing) sits a short walk from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and the Qujiang area around it has a night market after dark.
• Four days or more: Climb Hua Shan, 33 to 45 minutes by high-speed train from Xi'an North, or head 120 km west to Famen Temple and its tall pagoda. The Han tombs at Hanyangling start from the City Library stop on Line 2.

The wall itself is open 08:00 to 23:00, but most gates close at 18:00 or 19:00 (Zhongshan Gate at 21:00), so check your exit before an evening walk.

Fast trains make a rail loop with Beijing and Shanghai easy to build.

Spring dust, September rain and wall-riding weather in Xi'an

Visit Xi'an in April and May, the most dependable months with highs of about 22 to 27 °C, or in late October and early November. March and April can bring dust storms, most rain falls from July to October with September wettest at about 117 mm, summers reach the low thirties and January highs are about 5 °C.

Weather in the Wei Valley brings dust in spring and most of its rain in September.

Rain here does not peak in high summer the way it does on the coast.

That matters for the city wall. Bike hire stops whenever rain is possible because the paving turns slippery, so a wet week in September can rule out the classic ride. Keep a flexible day if you visit then.

March and April can bring dust storms as the plain warms quickly. Late October and early November are cool and drying out, good conditions for the long ride round the ramparts.

Summer highs sit in the low thirties, and the record is 42.3 °C, set in July 2025; short thunderstorms are common. At the Terracotta Army the pits are under cover but the long queues outside are not, so bring water. Winters are cold and dry.

Paomo, biangbiang noodles and Muslim Quarter manners in Xi'an

Xi'an eats bread, noodles and lamb. The signature dish is yangrou paomo, bread you tear small before lamb soup is poured over it. Try belt-wide biangbiang mian in Fen Alley, roujiamo at Yu Lao Da on Wuxing Street and cold liangpi, and eat Hui dishes in the Muslim Quarter around the Great Mosque.

Bread, noodles and lamb define the local table, a long way from the rice dishes of the south.

The signature dish is yangrou paomo. You are handed a round of dense bread and expected to tear it into pieces no bigger than a little fingernail; most first-timers leave them far too large. Lamb soup is then poured over the shreds, with pickled garlic and chilli alongside. Some places now tear the bread for you, and beef versions exist for those who skip lamb.

Biangbiang mian are belt-wide noodles whose name uses a character of 58 strokes; the long-standing shop in Fen Alley inside the walls is the one locals call zhengzong, the real thing. Roujiamo, chopped meat in a flatbread, is the local burger, best in the morning at Yu Lao Da on Wuxing Street opposite the Catholic church. Liangpi, cold noodles in chilli oil and vinegar, makes a quick lunch.

The Muslim Quarter, a web of Hui lanes around the Great Mosque north-west of the Bell Tower, is the place for paomo, persimmon cakes (shizi bing) and moist green-bean cakes. Prices run high there and quality varies, so locals advise eating only Hui dishes in the quarter. Non-Muslim visitors may tour the mosque grounds but not the main prayer hall; dress modestly.

After dark, Defu Alley near the South Gate is the bar street, and clubs along Nandajie keep going until about 04:00.