Xi’an Foodie Tour

Welcome to Xi’an! The warm-hearted guide will pick you up at the airport and transfer you to the hotel. Then, you can have a good rest after a long-distance flight. 

After enjoying breakfast, you will be driven to the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum, which takes about an hour(40KM). Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum reproduces the glory of the armies of Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor of China). The whole construction took 38 years and involved nearly 720,000 workers. These life-size terra cotta warriors and horses have silently guarded this place for more than 2,000 years. These terra cotta warriors and horses you will see are intact, but when they were unearthed originally, they were not as intact as that today. They were restored by experts after innumerable days and nights. You may just spend 5 seconds looking at a terra cotta warrior, but it may take a restorer 5 months to restore it. 

After lunch, you will go to visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The pagoda was first built in 652 to preserve Buddhist scriptures and statues that were brought back from India by the monk Xuanzang(Buddhist monk and Chinese pilgrim to India, who translated the sacred scriptures of Buddhism from Sanskrit into Chinese). It has 7 floors with a total height of 64 meters. Looking at the pagoda, you will find that it slants towards the northwest. It is because the pagoda has undergone over 70 earthquakes. Furthermore, the excessive groundwater extraction during the past days is also one reason for its inclining. For such a situation, the government and the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau are trying to make the pagoda upright by strengthening its foundation and the means of groundwater reinjection. Nowadays, the incline of Big Wild Goose Pagoda returns 1 millimeter every year. It is estimated that it will take about 1,000 years to be completely upright.

Then, you will pay a visit to the Old City Wall, the most complete city wall in China with a total length of 13.7 kilometers. The old wall was initially built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and enlarged during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). On each of the four corners of the wall, there is a watchtower. And the one at the southwestern corner is round while the other three are square. Why the southwestern watchtower is round? Legend has it that before the city wall was rebuilt in Ming Dynasty, there lived an old woman. She suffered endless torture from her son and daughter-in-law. Later, she was driven out of home and starved to death. When the local officials knew this, they sentenced her son and daughter-in-law to death and beheaded them under the southwest corner of the city wall. Later, during the rebuilding period of the city wall, the other three watchtowers were rebuilt in a square shape, and only the southwest watchtower was deliberately retained in its original round shape, which is said to warn the later generations of being filial to their elders.   

In the evening, you will enjoy a Dumpling Dinner with Tang Dynasty Singing and Dancing Show. Before the show, the dumpling banquet will start. The materials of dumplings are hand-picked and the dumplings are vivid in shape with different fillings. Besides dumplings, there will be soup, dessert, cold dishes, and beverages. The traditional shows reproduce the songs and dances of Tang Dynasty style. You can enjoy the fabulous dances, music, and stunning costumes. From these shows, you can learn some cultural and historic stories from the Tang Dynasty. After the show, the first day of the Xi’an visa free tour comes to an end.

Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

This morning, you will go to see the Small Wild Goose Pagoda(closed each Tuesday), located inside Jianfu Temple. Small Wild Goose Pagoda, like Big Wild Goose Pagoda, can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. Both of them are important Buddhist pagodas, and the Small Wild Goose Pagoda was used to store the Buddhist sutras that were brought from India by pilgrim Yijing, a great Buddhism translator at that time. Besides the pagoda, there is a giant iron bell, called the Jin Dynasty Iron Bell, hanging in the Bell Tower of the Jianfu Temple. The bell was built in 1192, with a weight of 10 tons, a height of 3.5 meters, and a diameter of 2.5 meters. In the Qing Dynasty, monks clanged the bell every morning to pray for happiness and good luck. In 1998, the replica of this bell was hanged in a steel frame in an open area, which can be clanged by tourists.   

Then, you will have a visit to Xi’an Beilin Museum. Beilin means steles forest in Chinese, and the museum got its name because many steles cluster together like a forest. The museum was founded in 1087 and collected more than 11,000 relics, including 3,000 stone steles from the past dynasties. On the stone steles, there are Chinese characters that tell the information about the historical facts, lifestyles, and religions of ancient times. Xi’an Beilin Museum is mainly composed of 7 exhibition halls, displaying stone steles, ancient works of calligraphy, and stone sculptures. Besides, there are two sculpture galleries. In the east gallery, there are 150 stone Buddhist statues from North Wei Dynasty (386-534) to Song Dynasty (960-1279), and in the west gallery, there are 70 exquisite exhibits dating back to Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).   

After lunch, you will head to the Great Mosque, one of China’s four great mosques. It is the oldest mosque in Xi’an. It was originally built in 742 and enlarged for many times in the following dynasties. Nowadays, the mosque covers an area of 6,000 square meters and consists of four courtyards. Stepping into the first yard, you can see a nine-meter tall arch, and on either side of the arch, there are two rooms displaying precious calligraphy works and ancient furniture, etc. In the second and third yards, there are many stone steles, on which both Chinese and Islamic inscriptions were engraved. And in the fourth yard, there is a large prayer hall, which can accommodate 1,000 people. And the walls of the prayer hall are decorated with hundreds of colored paintings.    

The last destination of today is the Muslim Quarter. It is a street characterized by delicious local foods and souvenirs. The street has a total length of 500 meters from south to north. One of the most popular foods in Xi’an is Rougamo (or Chinese hamburger). The bread is chewy and it is stuffed with minced and juicy beef or mutton which are stewed with many seasonings for several hours. After one bite, you will find that Rougamo is so delicious that you cannot refuse. Another famous Xi’an food is Liangpi (a kind of cold noodles), which can be divided into Mi Pi (made from rice) and Mian Pi (made from flour). Mi Pi is more chewy and slippery while Mian Pi is softer. And the cold noodles are usually mixed with chili oil, bean sprout, mashed garlic, julienned cucumber, and other flavorings. 

Small Wild Goose Pagoda

Great Mosque

Today, you will go to the last attraction of this Xi’an visa free tour, Hanyangling Museum. It is located in the north of Xi’an, about 20 kilometers away from the city center. It takes about half an hour to get there. Hanyangling Museum is the joint mausoleum of Liu Qi, the Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-8 AD), and his Empress Wang. The museum mainly consists of the Mausoleums of Emperor and Empress, Site of South Gate Tower, Archaeological Exhibition Hall, etc. The Underground Palace Site Protection Exhibition Hall is an important part of the Mausoleum of the Emperor and is acclaimed as the most interesting and famous area of the museum. Here, the glass aisles give you a chance to closely observe massive mini pottery figurines, animals, chariots, horses, and other objects. All these cultural relics are exquisite and vivid. After visiting this place, you will be escorted to the airport according to your flight schedule. Welcome to China again! 

Hanyangling Museum

Hanyangling Museum

Author: Yibo Zhang

Proofreader: Yan Liu