Things to do
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Bell Tower
Raised in 1384 at the crossing of the four main streets, this timber and brick tower marks the centre of the walled city and is reached through a pedestrian underpass. Tang bronze bells hang inside. A combined ticket covers the Drum Tower a short walk west, and the upper gallery gives the clearest view along the old axis.
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Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
Seven storeys of Tang brick, raised in 652 to hold the sutras the monk Xuanzang carried back from India and spent his last years translating. It stands inside the working Daci'en Temple, where the halls and the incense are as much of the visit as the climb. The square in front runs a musical fountain show in the evening.
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Great Mosque
Hidden in a lane off the Muslim Quarter, the mosque is laid out as a sequence of Chinese courtyards, with a minaret built in the form of a pagoda and Arabic calligraphy cut into Ming stone tablets. It remains in daily use, so the prayer hall is closed to visitors, though the gardens and pavilions are open and reliably quiet.
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Mount Hua
A granite massif of five peaks rising east of Xi'an, reached in about half an hour by high-speed train to Huashan North and then a shuttle to the cable cars. The South Peak tops 2,100 metres. Vertiginous stairways link the ridges, and a plank walk bolted to a cliff face is done clipped into a harness, weather permitting.
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Muslim Quarter
Beiyuanmen and the lanes around it have housed Xi'an's Hui community for centuries, and the street food is the draw: hand-pulled noodles, lamb skewers over charcoal, roujiamo and persimmon cakes fried on the spot. It runs loudest after dark. The quieter side lanes west of the main stretch hold the butchers and bakeries that supply it.
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Shaanxi History Museum
Bronzes, Tang gold and silver, tomb figures and murals lifted from imperial graves fill a Tang-style building near the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. Admission to the main galleries is free, but a timed slot has to be reserved days ahead under a passport name and the daily allocation goes fast. Two hours covers the chronological route without hurrying.
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Terracotta Army
Farmers sinking a well in 1974 broke into a pit holding thousands of life-sized clay soldiers, each face modelled differently, drawn up in battle order to guard the tomb of China's first emperor. Three excavated pits and a museum stand at Lintong, an hour east of the city. Pit One holds the massed infantry; the two smaller pits repay a slower look.
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Xi'an City Wall
Ming ramparts from the 14th century still ring the old centre, a complete circuit of about fourteen kilometres, wide enough on top for two lanes of bicycles. Rental stands sit at the main gates and a full lap takes roughly two hours at an easy pace. Late afternoon light and the lanterns after dark are reason enough to go up twice.