ggreen

Next Friday I will be returning to Beijing from Jiuzhaigou in northern Sichuan province and have ended up with a four-hour layover in Xi'an. This seems a waste of a good afternoon, but I don't think it's feasible to get into the city proper and get back in time - my guidebook says it's an hour taxi from the airport into town...

Has anyone visited Xianyang, or any of the burial sites that may be fairly close to the airport?

Any suggestions are most appreciated! Otherwise, I'll be sure to bring a good book!

rkkwan

There are many of these Han-dynasties around Xian, and my parents have visited one of the royal tombs in Xianyang. But most of these are not regularly open to the public.

From Google Earth, I found one of the larger tombs just about 5 miles SW of the airport.

Don't have any more information on them.

ggreen

Thanks rkkwan. Without a way to communicate in Chinese, it sounds like I won't be able to find out if any of the tombs are open to public access. (All the more reason to return to China and take a language class! )

My guidebook mentions a small museum in Xianyang with some artifacts and a miniature terracotta army. So checking that out might be the right move, giving me something to do but leaving me plenty of time to get back to the airport!

Shanghainese

maytraveller went recently to visit an interesting inhabited cave dwelling dug into layers of yellow earth, didn't sound too far from the city center or airport, you can google it "Xian Inhabited Caves". Or go have a bowl of baaj's (and mine too) favorite "yang rou pao mo" - lamb soup with torn pieces of wheat bread (mo), we both claim it's soul warming, might be too hot for summer.

DO write a TR on your impressions of JZG, and let us know if "lao jia" works in Xian.

clarence

1) Xianyang museum.
2)Hanyangling .
3)TangShunling tomb.
4) Maoling.
5)Cave dwellings.

ggreen

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions. As it was, I was delayed out of JZG as we were literally in the middle of a rainstorm (being at cloud level LOL). So my time at Xian was reduced to 1 hour - that is until the flight to Beijing was repeatedly delayed due to "air traffic congestion"! I never made it out of the airport; a terrible bowl of beef noodles and a much-needed TsingTao were my dinner! Xian is still on my list for a future visit to China, and I will definitely add the suggestions you made here.

Full TR to follow; overall impression of JZG was breathtaking - at least when looking up above the umbrellas and sun hats of the crowds!