Travel postcard: 48 hours in Xian

9:00 a.m.— Have a late breakfast, and then put on your most comfortable shoes for a walking tour.

10:00 a.m. — Begin your sight-seeing with visits to the beautifully preserved Bell and Drum towers, which occasionally have musical performances.

11:00 a.m. — Xian is unusual in that large parts of its old city walls are preserved, whereas in much of China they have long since been demolished in the rush to develop. A leisurely walk along them gives a little bit of a taste of imperial China.

12:00 p.m. — Eat lunch at Laosunjia, which is over 100 years old and is a great place to sample some of the local cuisine.

2:00 p.m. — Visit the Shaanxi history museum which is considered one of the best in China.

4:00 p.m. — Climb to the top of Big Goose Pagoda which was originally built for Buddhist scriptures brought back from India.

5:00 p.m. — Last but not least, go shopping for souvenirs at the market in the Muslim quarter. The Folk House (Gao Jia Da Yuan) on Beiyuanmen has more upscale traditional Chinese art for sale, but trinkets in other little stalls should cost no more than a few yuan. Well recommended are the bright peasant paintings of rural scenes, which the province is famous for.

7:00 p.m. — Jump in a cab to the expanded and much improved airport. But we warned, it’s a long drive from downtown, so plan at least one hour to get there.

1|2

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email