10-Day Qin & Gansu Legacy Tour: Xi'an, Tianshui, Lanzhou & Xiahe

Morning — Arrival and Hotel Check-in
Land at Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, where your guide and driver are waiting. A private vehicle takes you into the city and to your hotel for check-in and rest.

Afternoon — Bell Tower Square
When you are ready, stroll around Bell Tower Square and feel the geometry of Chang'an: the Ming bell tower stands at the crossing of the city's four great axes, exactly where the Tang capital placed its own administrative heart.

Evening — Flavours of the Northwest
Head to the Muslim Quarter for dinner. Roujiamo, lamb pao mo and cold liangpi noodles come in quick succession, and the rich, savoury northwestern palate of Shaanxi announces itself in the first mouthful.

Meals
Breakfast, Dinner included.

Morning — The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum
Drive east to Lintong and stand at the edge of Pit 1, where more than six thousand life-sized soldiers face east in battle formation. Each face is different; the bronze weapons were still sharp when they came out of the ground. Your guide walks you through Pits 1, 2 and 3 and the Bronze Chariot hall, and explains how a workforce of artisans produced an army on an industrial scale in the third century BC.

Afternoon — Huaqing Palace
Continue to Huaqing Palace at the foot of Mount Li, where Emperor Xuanzong built thermal baths and pavilions for his consort Yang Guifei. The same courtyards later became the setting for the 1936 Xi'an Incident, so the site carries both the most famous love story and one of the decisive political moments of modern China.

Evening — The Grand Tang Mall
After dark, walk the Grand Tang Mall, a 2.1-kilometre pedestrian avenue of Tang-style architecture, light installations and street performance that recreates the night market of Chang'an at the height of the dynasty.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Xi'an Museum and the Small Wild Goose Pagoda
Trace thirteen dynasties at the Xi'an Museum, then climb the grounds of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built in the Tang to house the scriptures Xuanzang brought back from India.

Afternoon — The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and a Tang Tea Ceremony
Visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, where the monk Xuanzang translated the scriptures he carried from India. Continue into the Tang Dynasty Lotus Garden for a tea ceremony in the Tang manner — the tea is boiled, not steeped — led by a scholar who places it in the context of Chang'an and the Silk Road.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — The Cliff Galleries
Drive out to Maijishan and climb the plank walkways stitched to the cliff. The caves run from the Northern Wei to the Ming: early figures are gaunt and otherworldly, later ones plump and smiling, and the walkways themselves hang eighty metres above the pine forest.

Afternoon — The Scenic Area and Return
Take the slower path down past the Ruiying Temple and the viewing terraces. Your guide explains how clay, not stone, is the medium here — the sculptures were modelled, not carved, which is why Maijishan's faces are the most human of all the great cave sites.

Evening — At Leisure in Tianshui
Return to Tianshui. Try the city's own dish, guagua — a cold potato paste eaten with chilli oil — and rest for tomorrow's journey.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch included.

Morning — The Temple of Fuxi
Visit the Fuxi Temple, the largest and best-preserved Ming temple complex dedicated to the legendary first of the Three Sovereigns, born — so the tradition says — here in Tianshui. The halls hold the eight trigrams Fuxi is credited with inventing, the root diagram of Chinese cosmology and, your guide notes, of Chinese systematic thought.

Afternoon — High-Speed Rail to Lanzhou
Board the train west, about ninety minutes. On arrival, walk the Zhongshan Bridge and the Yellow River promenade, where the waterwheels and the Mother of the Yellow River sculpture line the fast, tea-coloured river.

Evening — Lanzhou Beef Noodles
Dinner is the city's signature bowl: a clear broth, white radish, red chilli oil, green coriander and noodles pulled to order. One clear broth, two whites, three reds, four greens — the local rhyme for a perfect bowl.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — River Corridor and Provincial Museum
Walk the riverside promenade — the Mother of the Yellow River sculpture, the waterwheels — then spend the middle of the day in the Gansu Provincial Museum. The bronze Flying Horse of Gansu and the Tang camel caravans set up the story of the corridor you have been travelling.

Afternoon — The Road to Gannan
Drive south out of the Yellow River valley and up onto the grasslands. The country changes by the hour: loess terraces, then alpine meadow, then the first prayer flags of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Evening — Arrival in Xiahe
Arrive in Xiahe, the small monastery town on the Sangke grassland. The altitude is around 3,000 metres — walk slowly, drink water, and sleep early; the Labrang Monastery kora begins at dawn.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — Labrang Monastery
Visit Labrang Monastery, one of the six great Gelugpa monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism and home to the longest prayer-wheel corridor in China — three and a half kilometres of wheels that devotees turn each day.

Afternoon — The Sangke Grassland
Head out to the Sangke grassland, the most beautiful pasture in Gannan, averaging above 3,000 metres. Blue sky, white cloud, herds of yak and sheep, black Tibetan tents, and the chance to ride.

Evening — A Tibetan Feast
A Tibetan feast of yak meat, qingke barley wine and butter tea, with singing and dancing around a bonfire.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — The Ganja Secret Realm
Explore the Ganja secret realm, the most mysterious natural formation in Gannan: the maze-like layout of the Eight-City ancient fort, the vertical drop of the White Cliff, and karst caves hung with stalactites.

Afternoon — Back to Lanzhou
Return to Lanzhou, about four hours, across the junction of the Loess plateau and the Tibetan plateau — some of the finest scenery on the route.

Evening — Lanzhou
Free evening in Lanzhou.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — The Yellow River Stone Forest
Visit the Jingtai Yellow River Stone Forest geopark, where pillars eighty metres high rise like swords from the ground, sculpted by the river over millions of years. Take a donkey cart through the floor of the forest.

Afternoon — High-speed Rail to Xi'an
Board the high-speed train to Xi'an, about three hours. On arrival, check in and rest.

Evening — Farewell Dinner
A farewell dinner of Xi'an specialities, reviewing ten days that ran from the thirteen-dynasty capital to the Silk Road, from grotto art to Tibetan Buddhism.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included.

Morning — At Leisure
A relaxed morning for final shopping or a last walk in the old city. Your guide can suggest where to find calligraphy, jade, terracotta replicas and Shaanxi speciality foods.

Afternoon — Transfer to the Airport
Your private vehicle collects you from the hotel and takes you to Xi'an Xianyang International Airport.

Evening — Departure
Board your onward flight, carrying the taste of Guanzhong and the memory of an underground army that waited two thousand years to be found.

Meals
Breakfast included.