Forty-five kilometres east of Xi'an, an army has stood in the ground for two thousand two hundred years and a Tang emperor's hot spring still runs above it. This day does one thing and does it properly: the pits in their quietest window, lunch in Lintong, an afternoon at a potter's bench making a figure of your own, Huaqing Palace at dusk — and a proper Xi'an dinner back in town.
Xi'an is the kind of city where three feet down is another dynasty — and forty-five kilometres east, Lintong holds two of them in a single county: the First Emperor's army, buried in formation since 210 BC, and the Tang spring palace where the empire came to bathe. Most days out of Xi'an try to see both counties in one blur. This one reads them in order, and adds the part nobody else includes: you make a piece of the army yourself.
See first, make second, see again, eat last. The pits take the morning while you are fresh — entered at the timed slot we hold in your name, and ordered so the biggest, Pit 1, falls in its quietest stretch. Lunch is a family kitchen in Lintong, kept light on purpose, because the afternoon is seated at a potter's bench in the village where the restorers live. Huaqing Palace comes at dusk, in the softest light of the day, and the line ends with a proper dinner back in the city.
A private guide and one vehicle door to door — your party only, your dates, and nothing left for you to organise on the ground. Families take note: the workshop hour is the one children sit still for.
Some six thousand life-sized figures stand in Pit 1, no two faces alike — modelled from life and painted once, the mineral colours gone within minutes of the earth opening in 1974.
Two seated hours at a master's bench in the potters' village: knead, mould, detail, paint — a figure 15–20 cm tall, yours to carry home.
Huaqing Palace: the Tang baths of an emperor and his consort — and the Five-Room Hall where the 1936 Xi'an Incident turned the century, bullet marks still in the wall.
Lunch in Lintong and dinner at a city institution — a dumpling banquet, or paomo you tear yourself — chosen to your taste, your allergies and your appetite for chilli.
“You meet the same thing twice in one day — in the morning you see how a figure was made 2,200 years ago; in the afternoon, you make one yourself.”
Morning — the army that has stood in the ground since 210 BC
Morning · 10:00–12:45The car comes to your door at nine with water and a one-page briefing; the hour on the expressway is where you hear who the First Emperor was and how the site was found, so nothing needs explaining once you are inside. In March 1974, farmers digging a well at Xiyang village struck something hard — the most important archaeological find of twentieth-century China. Pit 1 is the largest: some six thousand life-sized infantrymen and chariots drawn up facing east, only the eastern end excavated, the rest still in the ground, and conservators reassembling broken figures behind glass at the far end. The order of the visit is deliberate — scale in Pit 1, the command post in Pit 3, the units and the best-kept colours in Pit 2, home of the famous kneeling archer and the general — and the two bronze chariots, cast at half scale and restored over eight years from more than three thousand fragments, close the morning with the craft the pits only imply. Tour groups cluster from mid-morning; we hold your timed entry in advance and order the pits to the day's slots and the real crowds, so that Pit 1 falls in its quietest stretch.
Midday & afternoon — clay in your hands, at the bench beside the pits
13:00–16:15Lunch is a family kitchen near the site — oil-splashed noodles, the sizzle happening at your table, cold rice-fish and seasonal dishes — kept deliberately light, because the afternoon is clay. The workshop sits in the potters' village beside the pits, where the craftsmen who excavated and restored the army settled. A master explains how a Qin figure is built in sections, then walks you through the whole sequence: knead the clay and work the air out; mould head, body and legs separately and join them; cut the armour plates and robe folds, add the hair knot and the features; then paint in the original Qin palette — the colours that fade within minutes of excavation. Two seated hours later there is a figure of your own, 15 to 20 centimetres tall, dried under the master's eye and packed to travel: carried home, or posted on with postage extra. A restoration session — joining, filling and ageing genuine shards, the conservator's work in your own hands — can be added with three days' notice.
Late afternoon — an emperor's hot spring, two Chinas
16:30–17:45On the Tang palace's own site at the foot of Mount Li: the emperor came every October and stayed until winter, and the bath houses remain legible — the consort's apricot-blossom pool, the emperor's lotus pool, the Tang drains still in their original places. In the same garden stands the Five-Room Hall, where the events of 12 December 1936 turned the century; the bullet marks are still in the wall. One hot spring ties the high Tang to modern China, and the palace is deliberately placed at the end of the day, when the light is softest and the tour coaches have gone. Mount Li is a cable car away (ticket extra) for the view down over Lintong, and the drive back to Xi'an is a full hour to sit still and let the day settle.
Evening — a proper table to close the day
18:00–19:15The hour back is for photographs and unanswered questions, and the city lights come on as you arrive. Dinner is a city-centre institution, two ways: the dumpling banquet — a dozen courses shaped as flowers, birds and fish — or paomo, where you tear the flatbread into pea-sized pieces yourself and the kitchen floods it with mutton broth. Halal, vegetarian, allergies and a wish for less chilli are all noted at booking, and every table can be arranged. With The Long Regret added on, the evening moves to Lintong instead: a light supper, then the open-air spectacle staged across the palace lake with Mount Li as its backdrop — about seventy minutes in ten scenes, real-name tickets held by us, out by nine and back at your hotel by 22:40. The outdoor season runs roughly mid-March to mid-November; in winter we move you to the indoor staging instead.
Times are anchors, not walls — your guide flexes each stop to the weather, the crowds and your legs, and the order of the pits follows the day's timed-entry slots. Nothing repeats and nothing is retraced: one line out of the city and back.
A private day — your party only, your dates. Best in spring and autumn; fine all year with the hours re-arranged.
Your guide and vehicle for the day, all tickets with timed entry held in your names, the full pottery workshop with materials and your figure to keep, two meals and water throughout — the full list is below. Three to four travellers US$320 each; five to six US$280.
The army and Huaqing Palace both run on real-name tickets booked to your passport; once your dates are fixed we lock the timed entry, the palace and the workshop, hold the confirmations and re-check them the week you travel. You bring the passports and walk past the queue.
The workshop takes one party at a time and is booked at the same moment — the master's bench is the reason the afternoon exists, and it does not take walk-ins.
For spring and autumn dates, 45–60 days ahead is comfortable; the pits are big but the bench and the dinner table are not. Short notice? Ask anyway — timed entries are released in waves, and we hold a small allotment late.
Take it on its own — a layover, a rail stop, or a base city where only one day is free — or add it to the front or back of any journey that passes through Xi'an. Either way it runs 09:00 to about 19:15, door to door.
The day is one long excursion with an hour in the car either side — it carries every season, but the hours bend with the weather.
The day is flat, with no altitude: roughly 3–4 kilometres across the hangars — wheelchairs and site shuttles available — level grounds at the palace, and the workshop seated. Expect eight to ten thousand steps, broken by a full hour in the car each way.
The hangars are extreme in both seasons — a light jacket and a hat ride in the car, and the palace grounds have no shade at midday. Tell us about knees, hips and small legs in advance: the day bends around the answer, and the car is never more than a few minutes from any stop.
Three hangars, a palace and a village bench — ten thousand steps in a day. Broken-in walking shoes are the single best thing in the bag.
Every ticket on this day is real-name and checked at the gate — the army, the palace and the show. It is the one document the morning cannot proceed without.
The hangars are hot in summer and cold in winter, and the palace grounds have no shade at midday. Sunscreen and lip balm — the plain is dry.
Clay leaves its mark on a cuff at the bench — which, you will find, is as good a souvenir as the figure itself.
Xi'an to Lintong and back — see first, make second, see again, eat last.
Start planning your day