Hi, I made a last minute decision to go to Beijing to see Olympics. We (myself and two kids, 14 and 15)will then fly to Xian the evening of 8/22. We plan to spend 8/23 in Xian and I want to know what're the musts given our time in Xian.

In addition, should we hire a tour guide for visiting Terracotta Warriors? I speak Chinese but I don't know too much about the Qin history.

If you are a tour guides reading this, please price your service to [email protected].

Thank you!

Hi, hx88,
Sights must see are Terracotta Warriors, Ancient Wall(biking on it with your kids must be very exciting),Big Pagoda, Puppet Show or Tang Dynastic Show.

Note: I am not ads here, can you see it? I just want to offer some nice advice on their tour. I am man of loving traveling.

won't there be a million people there during that time and thus will take longer to see things??

Hi, the situation must be a little bad as lots of tourists rush to those sights. But they are popular because they are touristy;they are touristy because they are popular. So they are must sights we should visit. It takes longer than usual.

Morgan,

Thanks for the suggestions. Do you know where I can rent bikes? I also did some research on ctrip.com and found Terracotta Warriors, Ancient Wall, ShanXi History Museum are the top three to fit in one day. I definitely will hire a guide either beforehand or at the sites. If anyone has recommendation, I'd please to hear it.

rhkkmk - judging from the 60% off ticket sale on Air China website, I don't think 1,000,000 people will show up in Xian. Actaully the vistation might be lower than normal.

John

Hi, John,
You could rent bikes when you are on the top of the Wall. Yes, Terracotta Warriors, Ancient Wall and ShanXi History Museum are the top three to fit in one day. Regarding tour guide service, I googled a website and found they have lots of guides. http://www.chinahighlights.com/about...guide-xian.htm. See if they could help you. Good luck.
Morgen Mo

My family of four with children ages 7 and 13 spent two nights in Xi'an. We hired a van and driver from our hotel. Our driver spoke very good English. In eight hours we visited the Banpo museum, Terracotta Warriors Museum, Huaqing Hot Springs/Imperial baths, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and Little Wild Goose Pagoda. You will be approached by a tour guide when you arrive at the Terracotta Warriors Museum. It should cost no more than 100 RMB and you should spend at least two hours on your tour there. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was "closed for renovation" and we were glad we visited the less visited Little Wild Goose Pagoda where we climbed to the top. That evening we ate at De Fa Chang dumpling house which has some very delicious and unusual dumplings.

We also visited the Drum tower and Bell tower, and did rent bicycles to ride around the perimeter city wall (takes about an hour and a half). I also recommend a trip to the muslim street market in the evening., just north of the Drum Tower. We ate at Jia San Guan Tang Bao Zi restaurant where we had an excellent meal. Please watch for a presentation on the History Channel called "China's First Emperor" that has been showing lately. It is an outstanding show regarding Q'in history.

With only one day, you may well want to hire a guide who can drive you out to the Warriors and still have you see some sights closer in, as well. As I recall from the summer a few years back, Xian is very congested with traffic and so it was difficult to get around to see much. In any case, my family used a guide who other Fodorites have used as well -- Clarence Guo. He has an interesting, somewhat idiosyncratic theory about the Warriors site, about which he's posted here. If you search with his name -- and google the same -- I think you'll get his contact info. He just appeared briefly with Samantha Brown in her TV segment the other night, on Xian, eating dumplings with her. His rates, at least back when we used him, were fairly reasonable.

Agreed.
Morgen

You need a driver out there but to be honest I do not think you need a guyide at the warriors. I did not have one and it was a terrific exprerience there. The old farmer who found them is usually in the gift shop and signs books for you. he is really cute. In his 80's I believe and comes in with his packed lunch when he feels up to it and signs some of the books. He gets something for this and I believe is looked after by the state or received something for his find drom what my Xian friend said. He is a bit deaf and does not speak English.

I did not go sbut some friends were aroiund the old city walls and said it was really nice. we just wandered and went for dumplings and explored. Nice city.

I'd go with Binthair's suggestions and add one of my own.

Try the tour with the Golden Bridge Travel Service tour. When I went they were in the Bell Tower Hotel, SECOND floor. Their tour started at about 9:30am. Fewer people than the CITS tour (cast of thousands!) and it's better to have someone guide you through the crowds.

The pagodas, the wall, the Muslim quarter and, of course, the dumplings at De Fa Chang (it's in the main square, you can't miss it) - any and all of these, depending on how much time you ahve.

Hi, Thanks everyone for your valuable advices. I am planning to visit Terracotta Warriors, ShanXi History Museum, Banpo Museum and spend sometime exploring ancient wall, bell tower etc. I will try to hire a driver for a day who could pick us up in the morning and send us to the airport in the evening. We will also hire tour guides when visiting museums. It's going to be packed day but I look forward to it.

Yes,you don't have to hire a guide at the warriors. 90% of the tourists just took pictures there since they don't want to learn more about the Qin history.

SiobhanPo you know
Why weren't the warriors found until 1974 ?
How did the warriors be burnt and destroyed
How did pit 3 control the other two pits ?
Why was the 1 million Qin army able to conquer the other six states in 221.B.C. but then shortly after could not defeat the 20,000 unarmed peasants during their uprising

A guide book you shoud read before visiting the qin warriors:
1.Location of the Qin Emperor’s tomb
(1).Why did the Emperor Qins tomb be built there?
(2).The First Emperor of china and his mausoleum
2.Terracotta warios pits.And other attendent pits
3.How did the 3 pits be discovered?
4 Why did the army facing east ?
5. How did the warriors be burnt and destroyed ?
6 The squarebattle formatiom of pit 1
7 The army headquarts of the warriors
(1) Who is the the commander of the army ?
(2) How did pit 3 control the other two pits ?
8 The function of pit 4
9 The goose-flying battle formation of the three pits.
10 The “Four Deities ”battle formation of pit 2
11 Why did they arranged the “ Scarlet Bird ” ---- archers on the north east corner,not in the middle ?
12.How did the archaeoloists find the egde of the pits before it fully exvavated ?Are there more warriors buried under the building or under your feet ?
13.The terracotta figures in pit 2
14. The history of Emperor Qin’s family
15 The bronze weapons .
16.The entrance and the wooden ceiling in pit 2
17.The bronze chariots and horses.
18.Why was the Qin army able to conquer the other six states in 221.B.C. but then shortly after could not defeat the unarmed peasants during their uprising?

Clarence -- so why was the Qin army defeated 15 years after establishing their empire? From what I've read, the next two emperors were not very smart... but I would think that the armies would still have had good leadership?

Hello, Edwardso you work in China now,I want to send a copy to you.


Emperor Qin was a great man but he was a tyrant as well. After Qin unified China, he did not let the people rest. He ordered 700,000 people to begin building his tomb and palaces. 300,000 people were forced to build the great wall to the north and 500,000 people were sent to garrison the frontiers to the south. After this most of the people remaining were old men and women who had to work on the farms. People still had a hard life after the unification. Once citizens began to realize that their lives had not improved even his army did not want work for the Qin family anymore.
After the unification, Emperor Qin gathered all the bronze weapons from other states, killed the Confucian scholars and burnt the books which had a different point of view from his own. This way, he thought his empire could last for ever. He soon after called himself the “shi huang di”----first emperor,while hoping his son would be the second emperor and that his grandson would be the third emperor of Qin. Qin’scruel laws pushed the citizens Qin to fight for a better life. He paid no attention the peasants excusing them as uneducated and illiterate. Although most of them could not read or write they could fight and during the revolt did so with stones and sticks or whatever they could find.
Emperor Qin died during a tour of inspection. One of his children, Huhai, who followed with him, changed the emperor’s order which appointed his eldest son,Fushu, to become the second emperor of Qin. Huhai also wrote another imperial edict which caused the Prince Fushu to commit suicide and he then killed the other brothers and sisters who did not support him. Because of all of this when the rebellion came the Qin army did not want protect Huhai and allowed the rebellion to defeat him.
All of this caused the powerful empire to collapse four years after the Emperor Qin’s death. But the works of the people, namely the Great Wall and the Terracotta army, have lasted thousands of years.

Thank you for the history lesson, Clarence!

My family still talks about the wonderful time we had when you showed us the cave dwelling village, and also about the terrific dumplings we had with you in some out of the way place you drove to.

Clarence,

Thank you for being our guide in Xian. My kids, history oriented, and myself enjoyed the day tremendously.

John

Thank you.