Private Xi’an Local Tour: Terracotta Army & Folk Culture

In the morning, your private guide and driver will warmly greet you at your self-booked hotel in downtown Xi’an, followed by a comfortable 1-hour private car transfer to the world-famous Terracotta Army Museum, housing the burial objects of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang (259 - 210 BC), the first emperor in China’s history. He unified the six states and led the country towards might and prosperity, which laid a solid material foundation for the Terracotta Army’s construction. Shockingly, it took 720,000 laborers and 39 years to complete this spectacle. During his reign, another wonder, the Great Wall of China, was also created to keep out the nomadic tribes, leaving the Han Chinese culture intact. Follow your guide to visit three burial pits here, well-known for thousands of life-sized terracotta warriors with different facial expressions, hairstyles, gestures, and clothes, as well as bronze chariots and horses. Then, continue to a new exhibition for 230 representative historical artifacts that have never been made public before. As you behold red remains on the lips of some terracotta heads and the purple sleeves on soldiers, learn about ancient coloring techniques and color aesthetics from your guide and the official explanatory illustrations.

Later, we’ll drive 1.5 hours to the unspoiled Baishe Village, a 1,600-year-old settlement home to 225 underground quadrangles. Each courtyard features a large pit with traditional cave dwellings carved into its four sides, a marvel honored as the “living fossil of earth constructions”. Upon entering, you may hear tiny voices from afar yet never catch sight of anyone until your guide walks you down the slope into the old, fully-equipped courtyard. Inside one of the cave dwellings, feel the rural living conditions in the last century in China through a heated adobe bed and old-fashioned items such as showy quilt covers, yellowed posters, and enamel basins.

★ Savor Rustic Local Cuisine at an Underground Courtyard

To give you a deeper taste of local produce and folk culture, we’ve specially included a lunch here featuring authentic local dishes, like Xi'an Noodles, firewood stewed chicken with potatoes and onions, stone-baked buns, and salty-spicy steamed meat coated in rice flour. As you dine, experience the natural climate control of the unique courtyard structure, which stays warm in winter and cool in summer. Also, chat with villagers who may tell you how they designed a well-functioning drainage system to minimize the risk of rainwater flooding their homes.After a 45-minute car ride, we’ll arrive at the 14-century City God Temple, ranking among China’s currently best-preserved one of its kind. Along the north-south central axis, feast your eyes on three gates, four archways, and five pavilions with multi-layered eaves, interspersed with over 40 single buildings like the Bell and Drum Towers, Opera House, and Temple of God of Wealth. All of them feature vermilion main bodies, tall slate-gray or white stylobates, as well as large roofs with green glazed tiles and exquisite ridge ornaments of auspicious animals, immortals, and warriors. Pause for a while at the detailed brick carving of the Residential Hall gable, where you can surprisingly find a barber bearing his shoulder pole with heavy load, a street vendor hawking dainty rattles, and a soothsayer at his booth - straight out of a real bustling commercial scene in ancient time.

In the end, your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel in downtown Xi’an. Thank you for traveling with us, and we do hope this trip will create sweet memories for you!