Three days inside the walled capital where the Silk Road began — an army of eight thousand still standing in the ground, an afternoon with clay in your hands, and a night when a whole mountain becomes the stage.
Xi'an is the kind of city where three feet down is another dynasty, and three days is exactly enough to read its three layers. Day one stands on the city wall — the most complete ancient rampart in China, squared off in the Ming around the thirteen-dynasty centre — and opens the table with a proper Xi'an dinner. Day two goes east to Lintong: the Terracotta Army timed around the coaches, an afternoon at a potter's bench making a small warrior of your own, and Huaqing Palace, the Tang spring palace where the empire came to bathe — ending with The Long Regret, the open-air spectacle staged across a lake with Mount Li as its backdrop. Day three gathers the thread in the Shaanxi History Museum and the Great Wild Goose Pagoda before the airport.
Everything on the ground is ours: our own guides, our own vehicles, our own crews. The line is deliberately simple — Xi'an and Lintong, forty-five kilometres apart, with no hotel changes and two full evenings inside the wall. Afternoon in, afternoon out, and the two full days in between alternate seeing, making, eating and watching.
The walled city of today, Lintong's Qin and Tang — the buried army, a palace over a hot spring and a show staged on a mountain — then four dynasties in one museum hall. Two or three stops a day; the afternoons and evenings go to experience and performance.
Pit 1 with time to stand in it — some six thousand life-sized figures in formation, no two faces alike, plus the bronze chariots and the command post the groups walk past.
An afternoon at the pottery workshop by the pits, where a master leads you from kneading and moulding through detailing and painting to a small terracotta figure of your own — the one thing on this journey you make with your hands, and yours to keep.
The Long Regret, adapted from Bai Juyi's long poem, staged where it happened: ten scenes across the Nine-Dragon Lake at Huaqing Palace, with the whole of Mount Li lit as the set. Real-name tickets in the centre or VIP section, booked by us and included.
“Three feet down is another dynasty — three days is enough to read them all.”
Arrival, the wall at dusk & the first table
Day 1An afternoon arrival kept deliberately light: meet your guide at the airport or the rail station, come straight to a hotel inside the wall, and climb the ramparts as the lanterns go up.
Most flights and bullet trains land by early afternoon, so the arrival day stays light. Your guide meets you at Xianyang International Airport or Xi'an North station and takes you straight to your hotel inside the city wall. At 16:00 you climb at Yongning Gate, the South Gate, of the greatest Ming rampart in China — 13.74 kilometres around, twelve metres high, a gate on each side. Walk a stretch of the top or take a bicycle right around the circuit and read the whole old city from above. Down at street level, the Bell and Drum Towers mark the exact centre of town, and beside them Shuyuanmen is the old street of brush, paper, inkstone and rubbings. The day ends with the opening table, two ways: the dumpling banquet, a dozen courses of dumplings shaped as flowers, birds and fish, or lamb paomo, the bread you tear into soybean-sized pieces yourself before the broth goes over — your guide books whichever suits your table.
The buried army, a figure you make yourself & a night on a mountain
Day 2The fullest day, and it alternates: the army first thing, clay in your hands after lunch, a Tang palace at dusk, and a mountain for a stage at night.
East to Lintong — forty-five kilometres, about an hour on the expressway — with the day ordered so Pit 1 falls in its quietest window: roughly six thousand life-sized warriors and horses standing in excavation-line formation, every face different, modelled two thousand two hundred years ago and found by farmers digging a well in 1974. The bronze chariots, cast in half scale and found intact, and Pit 3's command post follow. Lunch is in Lintong, and then the hands-on hour: a pottery workshop in the Terracotta Village where a master leads you from kneading and moulding through detailing and painting to a small warrior of your own — fired, finished and yours to keep; a restoration session can be added for travellers who want the afternoon longer. As the light drops you continue to Huaqing Palace, the Tang spring palace whose bath houses still run with the water the emperors came for. And at night, the reason the day is built this way: The Long Regret, seventy minutes in ten scenes staged across the Nine-Dragon Lake with the whole of Mount Li lit from summit to shore — centre or VIP seats held in your name and included in the price.
Four dynasties in one hall, the pagoda of the sutras, then the airport
Day 3A last morning that gathers the thread: what thirteen dynasties left behind, in one hall, and the pagoda built to hold a pilgrim's library.
The Shaanxi History Museum opens the morning: Zhou bronzes, Qin weights and edicts, Han tomb figures, Tang gold and silver — and the Hejiacun hoard, a Tang treasure buried in a jar and found a lifetime later, all of it one hall after another of exactly what you spent yesterday standing in front of. Then the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, the seventh-century library tower raised for Xuanzang, the monk who walked to India and came back with the sutras. A local lunch closes the table, and the afternoon transfer takes you to the airport or the rail station.
Walking distances and start times are anchors, not walls — your guide flexes each day to the weather, the crowds and your legs, and the order of sights may adjust for timed-entry slots and closures. Nothing repeats and nothing is retraced.
Two nights inside the city wall and a single day trip of forty-five kilometres each way to Lintong. No internal flights, no rail legs, no packing and unpacking — the vehicle and the same driver meet you at the door of the hotel every morning.
Arrival and departure transfers are included and door to door. Day two is a single day trip with the same vehicle and driver — no trains, no early check-ins, and the evening ends minutes from your bed.
A private journey — your party only, your dates, your pace. Best from April to June and September to October; runnable in every season with the hours re-arranged, and winter is when The Long Regret plays to its emptiest, most atmospheric houses.
Xi'an in, Xi'an out. Two nights inside the city wall with breakfast, a private guide and vehicle throughout, every entrance fee and timed entry, the pottery workshop with a figure to keep, a centre or VIP seat for The Long Regret, and the meals named in the daily plan are all part of the price — the full list is below.
Small hotels, courtyard conversions and heritage properties we have stayed in ourselves, chosen for position and quiet rather than for a lobby. All licensed to receive foreign guests.
The days do not change with the bed. Comfort is our standard level; Signature steps up to design and heritage houses; Luxury is each destination’s best address, with a view to match.
Breakfast daily, taxes and service, twin or double as you prefer, and the bags taken up while you are out. Tell us about a hard bed, a soft pillow or a room away from the street — it goes to the hotel before you arrive.
Plenty of our travellers arrive with points or a favourite address. Point us at it, we plan the days around your door, and the accommodation comes out of your quote — nothing else about the journey changes.
China’s major sites run on real-name, timed entry booked against your passport, and the best-known ones cap visitors daily and release slots only days ahead. Once your dates are fixed we book the whole sequence, hold the confirmations, and re-check every one of them the week you travel — you bring the passport and walk past the queue.
Museums and palaces close one day a week (usually Monday); if your dates land on it, we re-order the days and tell you before you book, never after.
For spring and autumn dates, 60–90 days ahead is comfortable — the best houses and the timed slots both go early. Shorter notice? Ask anyway: we hold a small allotment in most cities and can usually move quickly.
This route sits inside a family of longer and shorter versions — ask us and we will send the alternatives side by side, with the days that would come out or go in, and what each one costs.
China runs across five climate zones, so the right months depend on the route rather than the country. Spring and autumn suit almost all of our journeys; the far west and the plateau we run later in spring and earlier in autumn.
Our days are built in short legs, broken every few hundred metres by something to see and something to sit down for. Where there are steps there are landings, and the vehicle is never further than the next gate.
Water and wipes ride in the car; a flask in cold months, shade and a long lunch in hot ones. Tell us about knees, hips and small legs in advance — the days bend around the answer, not the other way round.
Stone slabs, temple steps and long village lanes — broken-in walking shoes are the single best thing in the bag.
Mornings and afternoons differ by ten degrees or more across most of the year; a layer you can stash beats a coat you must carry.
A hat, sunglasses and a compact umbrella cover almost every day of the year.
Every timed entry is matched to it by name — carry it, and leave the queueing to us.
The vehicle carries the rest and meets you at every stop — pack for the morning, not for the day.
Refills ride on board, and hot water is what the country drinks — a thermos makes you local by day two.
Alipay or WeChat Pay set up before you land; we send a two-page guide with the booking. Cards work in hotels, cash almost nowhere.
Nothing starts before nine — no dawn calls, no rushed breakfast. We book each site's quietest slot instead, and let the day run at a civilised pace.
An army of eight thousand, clay in your hands, and a night when a whole mountain becomes the stage.
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