Private Xi'an City Tour

At the agreed-upon time this morning, your private guide and driver will meet you at your self-booked downtown hotel and then accompany you on a fantastic journey through the city highlights. 

Let’s start with a relaxing walk in the City Wall Park, a recreational green belt on the outside fringe of the ancient City Wall. You’ll see locals exercise on outdoor fitness facilities, walk their birds, play table tennis, sing local opera, or simply bask in the sun. This is Xi'an’s slow-paced life. As we walk along, we’ll reach the City Wall Remains Museum, also known as Hanguang Gate Site Museum, a window into the splendor and architectural ingenuity of the City Wall from over 1,400 years ago. Upon entering, first look at an elaborate model of the Hanguang Gate, faithfully reconstructed from archaeological findings, featuring towering gate towers, upturned eaves, broad passageways, and massive platforms. Venture further and peer down through a glass floor to view a preserved cross-section of the city wall. The soil colors, rammed-earth layers, and lime mortar between bricks, much like rings of a tree, tell the millennium-long story of the wall. After admiring the water culvert’s ancient wisdom, witness the most astonishing remains of the gate with three passageways, where the ancient ceremonial hierarchy of ancient times is etched into its design: the tall, wide central gateway was exclusively for the emperor, and the narrower side gateways for officials and ordinary traffic.

Afterward, officially climb onto the City Wall. With over 600 years of history, it has transformed from a key military defense into a cultural landmark linking past and present. Stroll along the wide walkway and stop occasionally at crenels to overlook the ancient or archaistic structures scattered among modern high-rises. Explore the ‘horse faces’ - platforms protruding from the wall, often topped with corner towers or watchtowers. These projections are spaced at regular intervals, a pattern determined not by chance but by the effective range of ancient bows and crossbows. Single and tandem sightseeing bikes are available on the wall; if you’re interested, your guide can assist you with rental at your own expense.

★ Savor Xi’an Like a Local

For lunch, we’ll treat you to authentic local snacks at a famous local brand. You won’t miss the world-famous Chinese Hamburger: freshly baked bread, golden and crispy on the outside, encasing tender, savory meat that has been slow-cooked, finely chopped, and bursting with rich juices. Every bite will give you a soul-satisfying mouthful of pure bliss. Besides, you can try other delicacies based on your preferences, such as sour and spicy cold noodles, meatball soup, and other noodle dishes.After that, let’s head to the Stele Forest, literally for the Beilin Museum, housing China’s largest collection of ancient stone steles and calligraphy masterpieces, spanning over 2,000 years of history. Linger before the reputed Nestorian Stele, on a level with the Rosetta Stele in the British Museum and the Moabite Stele in the Louvre Museum. Seeing that there is a cross engraved right above it, you can easily guess that the inscription is closely related to Christianity. With your guide’s explanation, learn that the emperors of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) had a very open attitude towards this foreign religion and provided considerable support during its introduction to China. Below, you’ll find a cluster of dead Syrian scripts alongside Chinese translations, key to deciphering newly discovered ancient scripts. Also, pay attention to the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum, vivid relief sculptures of six galloping horses that helped a Tang emperor in battle, with four being the originals and two replicas; the two missing originals are now kept in the Penn Museum in the USA.The Stele of the Preface to the Sacred Teaching Scriptures is also unmissable. Completed in 672 AD after 24 years of work, this 1,904-character inscription records the prefaces and postfaces of two emperors, along with Xuanzang’s (602–664 AD) translations of scriptures from India and his thanks to the emperor. The reason it is so valuable is that all the engraved characters are taken from the genuine works of Wang Xizhi (303 - 361 AD), the leading figure in ancient Chinese calligraphy. His originals had gradually been lost, so the number of available words at that time was limited, and the imperial power had also offered a large reward to collect the missing characters from the folk. Coupled with the sensation of a 27-character copy sold for USD 44 million at an auction, this high market value serves as an urgent call to protect such rare artifacts. Therefore, there were no more of the stele’s extensive rubbings once to be seen on the Shuyuanmen Cultural Street that we were about to pass by.

Following that, let’s continue our visit to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist scripture repository that has stood for over 1,300 years in Jianfu Temple. This 15-story, square, pyramid-shaped tower features a smooth, elegant silhouette, majestic yet delicate. Its cyan bricks, weathered by thousands of years, are marked with time: some edges worn, some surfaces cloaked in moss. Yet these mottled traces make the ancient tower feel more tangible. Walking around it, you can see cracks from historical earthquakes. And looking up from below, marvel at the layered eaves that resemble birds spreading their wings, as if ready to carry the tower into the clouds.

Then, dive into the Xi’an Museum by the side of the pagoda. Here, over 130,000 artifacts await you to trace Xi’an’s 3,000-year legacy as ancient China’s capital of 13 dynasties. Take a look at the Tang tri-colored glazed ‘Prancing Horse’ - its four hooves are suspended in the air, and the rider atop it has distinctly foreign facial features and is dressed in exotic attire, as if dashing in from the bustling Silk Road. Turn next to a gilt-bronze lamp in the form of a kneeling goat. The goat’s back can be removed and used as a lamp panel, which is both practical and artistically charming. And then observe the Yong Yu, a bronze vessel. Between the wave-band patterns and S-shaped patterns on its belly, inscriptions record the land grants bestowed by the king, quietly telling of the ritual system from 3,000 years ago.So far, we've visited all highlights in Xi'an. Your guide and driver will then escort you back to your hotel. Thank you for travelling with us! If you are looking for a day tour with the Terracotta Army Museum, or if you yearn for natural landscapes around Xi’an such as Mt. Huashan and Hukou Waterfall, please feel free to contact us for a personalized trip tailored to your preferences.