• Home
• China:
• 1. Arrival
• 2. Mutianyu
• 3. Xi'an
• 4. Xi'an
• 5. Leshan
• 6. Chengdu
• 7. Chongqing
• 8. Fenghuang
• 9. Furong
• 10. Zhangjiajie
• 11. Tianmen
• 12. Beijing
• 13. Return

 Day 3 (May 12, 2026) Xi'an: Walled city

Before      We have the tickets for the high speed train to Xi'an leaving from Beijing West at 9:55 AM. The scheduled arrival time is around 2:00 PM so, once we are settled in the city center, we would go eat lunch and spend the afternoon visiting the sights we have planned inside the walled city.   The spots marked on the map are:  0- Hotel Manxin Bell Tower  1- North Station  2- Bell Tower  3- Beijin  4- South Gate  5- Small Wild Goose Pagoda  6- Drum Tower

After   We go down to breakfast at 8:00 AM with everything ready to check out of the hotel and, as they suggested to us yesterday, we requested a taxi at reception desk for the nearby West station. The taxi arrives on time, at 9:00 AM. However, when I see a sign that seems to point to the station is straight ahead and we notice the taxi turns left, I check the GPS and confirm that, indeed, we are moving away from our destination.   I let the taxi driver know that we know what he is doing by showing him my phone. He understands and turns back up everything we had driven down, but instead of doing it on the highway, he goes through narrow streets. For our first train, I brought the tickets purchased in advance so we could focus on how the boarding process works, and that is why I wanted to arrive early, but in the end, we are tight on time and go straight to look for our train on the screens and head to the marked boarding gate, which is on the upper floor.   Once at the boarding gate, we find a queue and join it. When there is little time left before the scheduled departure, they take us down to the platform and place us in the zone where our train car would stop. This way, when the train arrives, boarding goes quickly and we take our seats right away.   The journey takes a little over 4 hours and we get off at Xi'an station at 2:05 PM. We follow the exit signs, like the large crowd of people who had also gotten off at this station.   We find the signs leading to the Didi zone and follow them. After the experience with the taxi, we are going to try the app. We arrive at an underground area with a lot of people waiting for their vehicles. I request the Didi the same way I would request an Uber, and it appears right away because there are already cars waiting at the station and it was one of them.   On the map, the station seemed close, just outside the North wall, but the walled area is large and traffic is slow, so we arrive at the hotel around 3:00 PM. Good thing I left the visit to the Terracotta Warriors for tomorrow, because today we wouldn't have been able to do it.   Along the way, we pass by the Bell Tower, which sits in the middle of a busy roundabout. The hotel is just some meters later.   We love the room, and while we were checking in, we got to see a food delivery driver arrive and put the food directly into one of the robots in front of the reception desk. The robot then set off on its own, waited for the elevator, and got in to deliver it to the room it belonged to.   We go out around 4:00 PM to look for a place to eat biang biang, the typical noodle dish from this region. We follow the GPS to an area of alleyways packed with eateries and choose one that have a photo of the dish we are looking for. This is not a touristy area, so no one speaks English and nothing is written in our alphabet, but we made ourselves understood.   We show the man in charge of the place a photo of the typical burger from Xi'an as well, and he nods and goes out, returning with two of them. He asks us to pay the woman who had come with him, so we understand that he had gone to get them from one of the stalls outside.   We love the biang biang, which has an unique noodle texture and the perfect level of spice. The burger is also good, but it is completely eclipsed by how delicious the biang biang is. It isn't really a burger, but rather a sandwich filled with pulled meat.   The biggest surprise came with the bill. This massive feast, including the drinks we grabbed from the fridge, cost us about €3 per person.   Wanting to make the most of our time before it gets dark, we walk toward the South Gate of the city wall, which borders the city center in the shape of a square. This is the one close to the hotel. We see the gate across the road and indentify the underground walkways leading to it. There is also a metro station inside these walkways.   On the other side of a tunnel filled with photos of what looks like the show that takes place at this gate at night, there are escalators leading up to the surface, where the entrance and ticket offices are located.   We pay 54 yuan per person for the ticket and go straight onto the stage area at the foot of the wall, where we guess the nightly show from the photos we saw along the way takes place.   There is not much more to it. The actual attraction is up top, where you can walk all the way around the ancient city wall, enjoying the views offered by its height. We walk around for a bit and then head back.   We follow the exit signs, which lead us through some gardens and across a bridge that opens up into a square, already outside the complex, featuring what looks like the actual city gate complete with a drawbridge.   Our goal now is to reach the park where the pagoda and the Drum Tower are located, so we look for a way to leave the wall and head toward the outer streets.   Once ot of the walled city, we keep walking, doing some shopping along the way, until we see a tower identical to the Bell Tower we had seen earlier. When I check the GPS, I realize that it actually is the Bell Tower and that, at some point, we had taken the opposite direction of what we thought: instead of leaving the walled city, we had entered it again.   Since we are tired and it is already getting dark, we go back to the hotel to drop off our shopping and rest for a bit.   Once night falls, we decid to take a stroll toward the Bell Tower to see it lit up. The tower is even more of a highlight now, glowing with yellow and red lights.   But the real surprise was that practically the entire railing around the tower's roundabout is taken by girls dressed in traditional clothing, posing for photographers. There are dozens of them.   On our way back, we notice that next to the buildings bordering this roundabout, there are also a crowd of girls, some in traditional dress and others not, who were doing live streams using just their phones and a ring light.   And with this, we finally call it a night. We are really liking this city, and tomorrow we have the main event with our visit to the Terracotta Warriors complex.